Choices of a Character
by Shyfrost
Summary: An upgrade to Sugar Rush causes a new character to show up, and its up to the president to show her the way to be a true racer. The new character proves to be far more difficult to manage than the president ever thought possible when issues with her code arises. Meanwhile, Ralph is starting to question his whole life and life in the arcade.
1. Prologue: The Upgrade

Prologue: The Upgrade

Sugar Rush was a racing game located inside an average arcade, average at least to the untrained eye. Behind the arcade screens, entire lives were lived once their daily gaming jobs were complete. Life had never been better for any and all characters who lived in the arcade. Life had _really_ never been better for one President Vanellope von Schweetz. After her life was fixed and almost stolen away forever, racing became her life. Ruling over her virtual kingdom was just as important, if not incredibly boring.

Vanellope's new friends from various other arcade games-such as Ralph from the game _Wreck-It Ralph_-kept things interesting. Life was never as sweet as it was in that particular arcade, except when one of the machines was turned off for an upgrade. It wasn't a terrifying experience but it wasn't far off. Hanging around in a dark, lifeless kingdom while the electricity was entirely off just seemed wrong.

The present state of her kingdom reminded the president of her old days, when she hid away in a dark volcano from the others. It had been the longest two days of her virtual life while she and her other racers patiently waited for the upgrade to be completed. To make matters worse, they had no idea what the upgrade would do.

"This is so boring!" one of her fellow racers screamed. All of them were forced to hang around the finish line next to their respective cars. "Why do need to hang around here again?"

The president sighed. "Because, _Candlehead_, if the owner of the arcade turns us on and we aren't in our cars, ready to race, he'll assume we are broken, and that would be really, really bad!"

"Oh. This still stinks!"

"Yep, still, an upgrade would be cool. I hope it has new characters!" At the mention of this, all of the racers crowded around the president and started demanding to know what she knew. "I told you all, I don't know squat! All I know is the owner got an upgrade shipped in and is installing it now, that's all!"

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww," they all said in union.

Vanellope almost felt like sulking. Moments like this made her wish she could be with her _real_ friends. With the machine unplugged, it was impossible to reach _Game Central Station_, which was the one and only hub for the arcade for other game characters to mingle. It was insanely boring to simply stand around for two days talking with one another. She hated casual conversations, even with her own subjects. She did, however, enjoy the assumptions that her fellow racers were making on the upgrade.

Vanellope felt excited but mostly unnerved. Upgrades could do strange things to a game's code. It never changed personalities, but it could still mess up their game forever. If the game was unplugged and sold, that would be game over for her deep-rooted friendship with the other game characters. Or, worse, they could also be unplugged forever. It didn't mean death, but it was close.

"It's the waiting around that kills me," Vanellope said to no one in particular, but the girls heard her anyway. They assumed she meant boredom. However, she really feared their game's slow and painful termination from the arcade.

"I hope my car doesn't get upgraded," another girl remarked.

"They seem fine, Minty," Vanellope dismissed.

"Whatever."

As far as stimulating conversations went, phrases like "whatever" were as far as the president got in her game. If it wasn't for her other friend Ralph, she would have probably gone insane and abandoned her game long ago. It wasn't that she hated driving-far from it-but her subjects were spoiled and rotten as they could be. They weren't evil, at least not anymore. Tampering with the game's code and destroying memories, as it turned out, is the recipe for evil. Turbo the evil king was long gone. When the game was restored, her fellow racers changed back to normal, but they were still spoiled.

Several hours into that day, after they got tired of telling stories and complaining, a light turned on. And then another and another. The entire race track lit up as their car engines turned on without warning.

"Quick, everyone in your cars!" Vanellope ordered. Her subjects obeyed and struck a pose. From the outside, the owner of the arcade smiled and double-checked to make sure the machine was working properly.

"Let's see here…Okay, I can select racers, and now I can select tracks! Perfect! The upgrade worked!" The owner smiled and left the machine to its business. It was already closing time, so he had no choice but to close up the arcade, not bothering to turn the machines off before he left.

All of the racers sighed in relief. They then looked around and gasped. "Look! New tracks! Awesome!"

The president looked around and, sure enough, in addition to the standard ice-cream-and-candy-themed track they had gotten used to, new ones had appeared along with new areas of her kingdom. They saw massive new tracks, each with their own themes: "sour candy track," "liquorish track," and a few others had been installed. Still, Vanellope felt she should inquire further. "Anyone see any new racers?"

Her subjects all looked around; they knew that if any new code was added with a new racer, they would appear right before them.

"I don't see anyone."

"Nope!"

"Our cars seem the same too, what a jip!"

The president rolled her eyes and sighed in relief. "Alright, racers of my kingdom, take a break. The arcade will be open on Monday, so we have a few days." She couldn't be happier to be rid of the racers so she could visit her real friends. She darted for the exit of their game almost faster than her car could carry her. Ignoring the protests of her sour assistant, she left and took the tram for Game Central Station.

"Hmm, where's the power surge protector? Weird…" It was weird indeed; he was always there questioning people going to and from their games. Shrugging it off, Vanellope looked around for the game she wanted. Her racer friends seemed to want Pac Man over anything else. She couldn't blame them for that. She wanted Tappers, the root beer game that her friends met at every weekend.

She located Tappers and, once again, the surge protector security person was not there to stop or "greet" her. Odd. Shaking away those thoughts, she quickly found her friend sitting at their favorite table.

"There you are, Stink Brain," a rather large game character muttered under his breath. He was the very definition of huge. Even the buttons on his suspenders were large by suspender standards.

"'Sup, Butt Breath?" They giggled as the two other members of their group kept a safe distance from their banter. Both their counterparts knew all too well not to get involved during these moments.

Ralph asked, "What's up with me? What about you? And that upgrade?!"

"Oh Ralph, it was lame…Got some new tracks and that's it," she admitted with just a slight bitterness in her voice.

"That's it? I think me and Felix here would kill for some new levels!" Ralph gestured one of his freakishly long hands over to someone else sitting at the table. He was an odd-looking fellow, fairly normal-looking as far as humans went, which was abnormal for a game character and very out of place. To Vanellope, he seemed like a standard repairman. If standard workers held a magic hammer that could basically fix anything.

"Yeah I know, I know. But, man, I wanted some new racers! At least _one_ would have been awesome! My kingdom gets so boring sometimes!" The president scowled and chugged down the chocolate milk the bartender placed in front of her.

Suddenly, a rather rough-looking lady sitting with them spoke up. "Take it from firsthand experience…new characters in a game are nothing but problems! Before you know it, the new recruits are pissing their pants at the first sign of a Cy-Bug. You're better off without them!"

Felix gave a sheepish smile to the smallest at the table. She just rolled her eyes in response. "We don't have those stupid bugs in our game. I just want a new racer, a new challenge! Calhoun, this stinks worse than Ralph's breath!" They all looked to the biggest at the table, who seemed to be staring off into space.

"Um, Ralph? Aren't you going to make a comeback or something?" Felix's voice echoed through Ralph's ears before he snapped out of his daze.

"Wha? Huh?" Before he knew what was happening, Ralph was smacked in the head by a tiny hand belonging to a certain president.

"What's wrong with you? I said your breath stinks! Now you say something, doofus!"

He laughed slightly but sighed. "I guess I'm just kind of out of it guys…and, girls…err, you know what I mean."

Vanellope sat down and tilted her head to the side in honest concern. She felt out of character in this moment, but she never wanted to be outright mean to others. "Um, wanna talk about it?" she offered.

Ralph shrugged. "Been doing the same gig for thirty two years-"

"This again?!" Calhoun nearly shrieked.

Felix put a hand on her shoulder. "Um, honey bun, maybe we should quiet it down." She rolled her eyes but, oddly enough, listened to him. They all waited for Ralph to continue.

"It's not my game that's bugging me, um, gang. It's all of this!" He gestured to nothing in particular.

"What?" Calhoun asked.

"Being a game character. I'm not bothered by it, but…what happens when someday the arcade shuts down?" The other three groaned at that. Secretly, the youngest was outright petrified of the very idea. If that happened, they knew there was a slim chance that their machines would be plugged back in, but they wouldn't be with each other most likely, or, worse, their machines could be scrapped for parts.

"Um, I try not to think about it, Ralph," Vanellope said bitterly, surprising the others by hanging her head low.

"Aww, c'mon, gang! We're all going to live a long game-filled life! So, let's just make the most of what we've got and give it our all!" Felix cheered. Ralph and Vanellope cheered with him. It was a silly gesture, but it did succeed in raising their spirits somewhat.

"At least someone is giving it their all, cause Miyamoto knows it isn't my new characters!" Calhoun exclaimed.

They all giggled at this and tried their best to remain in high spirits throughout the night. It worked for the most part. Eventually, they all decided to give into the night and return to their respective homes in their games, or, in the Sergeant's case, their "quarters".

Vanellope tried her best to sleep that night, but what Ralph said was still fresh in her mind. Just the very idea of getting unplugged for good seemed a million times worse than living a false reality as a glitched non-playable character. She had hated those days, but it seemed better than dying.

Just outside the castle, a small power surge occurred in one of Sugar Rush's new tracks. It was small enough to go unnoticed, but the results would be realized soon enough.


	2. Chapter One: The Changing Racer

Chapter One: The Changing Racer

The president of Sugar Rush Kingdom woke up late that day. _Too_ late, she figured. She felt exhausted. Her code didn't feel as fresh or well-ran as it should have been after a good night's rest.

Dreams never came to game characters, Vanellope being ignorant of their advantages.

Groggily, Vanellope leapt out of bed. Looking around, she located a clock that read it was well past lunch time. "Oh, sour balls! I need to stop thinking so much in bed…" Shaking herself awake, she left her room, not bothering to take in the royal sights that greeted her each and every day.

"There you are, Your Highness." A sentient non-player character walked up. He was a piece of talking candy.

"Sour Bill, what's wrong now?" She already knew the answer; someone had started a stupid fight in the small kingdom. And it was _always_ up to her to stop it.

"A few more fights have broken out. They requested to see you to mediate it." Even Sour Bill's gloomy attitude was enough to make her crack a smile. She felt smug, knowing exactly what was wrong. She also wanted to laugh at her second-in-command, simply because he was funny.

"Can I get some lunch first or something?" She waved her hand in the direction of the royal kitchen.

"Sure, I'll go get you some prepared, while you take care of the problem. They're waiting in the throne room."

"I can hardly contain my excitement." Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she made her way to the throne room. _Surprise, surprise. Snowanna and Minty are fighting over racer placement…I better say something. _But she didn't, she kept staring at them hoping for their fight to end and for it to be all over.

"I still say I should be in third this race!" Minty said, stomping her feet in frustration. The president did nothing, still only half-awake.

"I won that spot fair and square!" Snowana wailed. The president's code-based headache got worse. Vanellope grabbed the sides of her head in an attempt to drown it all out, but to no avail. She watched them go about this for several minutes before her assistant returned.

"Your lunch," he said, offering her a tray.

"Yes!" She jumped up in the air, causing the two girls to turn in her direction. She sighed. "Oh, I'm sorry, please keep fighting…" They nodded and did just that while Vanellope rolled her eyes and started on her meal. She continued to munch in a casual manner, almost finding it amusing that the girls assumed either one would get their way. Ralph had a better chance of fitting perfectly inside one of their cars.

"So, what have you decided, Your Presidency?" Snowanna asked by adding the last part with the hopes of buttering her up.

Nonchalantly, she kept eating while she scanned both girls and then looked down to Sour Bill, who merely shrugged. "Denied," she replied without skipping a beat. She quickly shoved a massive piece of candy in her mouth. "Nrow geet orrout pwease." She ignored the single scoff of one of her friends and finished her meal in silence. After swallowing the last bite, she sighed and asked, "Was that it, Sour Bill?"

He answered, "I believe so, yes."

She tilted her head to the side, trying to think of a way to fix her current boredom. "Hey, I know!" she exclaimed, replying to the conversation within her mind. "I can test out the new tracks!" She knew there was nothing better to do until Monday. True, occasionally some big problem came up in her kingdom, but she couldn't be bothered if she was racing and her subjects knew it.

"I'll get your car ready," the gloomy one muttered. Vanellope nodded and smiled with glee. She may not have had any new racers, but at least she could enjoy some of her day. She didn't much feel like seeing Ralph after what he said. She felt bad for feeling that way, but to be fair, he _did_ make her feel worse.

"Awesome! Meet ya on the new Sour Candy Track!"

She bounced out, running as fast as her tiny legs could carry her, glitching from place to place. Glitches were what set her apart from the other racers. What used to be a curse had turned into something that most game characters could only dream about, if they could have dreams.

Daydreaming was what she used to do, moping over her obvious flaw. But it took one Wreck-It Ralph to show her that she was wrong. The ability to spontaneously blink out of existence and blink back somewhere else was a miracle for a driver like her. It gave her the ultimate edge and although most would call it unfair, she called it _leveling the playing fields._ The other racers all had various abilities that made them work on the track, but her car was bare and so was she. So, teleporting her car back and forth while racing was her playing fair.

Licking her lips, she tried her best to get a feel for the new track. True, there was no real conflict or anything to make her nervous-far from it. She was the only racer on the track. Her car had drummed to life a while ago, but she would not hit the gas just yet.

Vanellope's car, when compared to the others, was quite plain. It was as candy-coated as much as the next car, but there was nothing on or even in it that gave her some kind of edge. They offered her a royal one, but she declined. The human players enjoyed her car the best anyway and it was made from the help of a very special friend.

Shaking those thoughts aside, she dawned her virtual helmet and hit the gas without thinking. The car stalled for a second and then accelerated, hitting sixty miles per hour in less than five seconds. She was racing on a new track! It felt great.

The strip of road was covered with sparkling sour salt. This made the terrain somewhat rough to drive on, but not too much. She instantly swirled around three very large pieces of sour candy that were meant to throw her off the road and into a sour river. Making another right turn, Vanellope found herself on a downwards ramp.

The ramp seemed far steeper than anything on the default track. It went so deep that it seemed to go on forever. Without even realizing it, Vanellope noticed that her car's headlights had turned on. "I didn't even know we had those! Wow, it's dark in here!"

It was almost annoying having to dodge left and right through the constant haze of-"Wait a second…" It was then that she realized what new trick the tunnel was playing. The mist was sour. She was wearing goggles, so her eyes were not affected, though the mist made it difficult to see. She had to dodge pillars of sour candy in the dark through a misty haze. To her, this was definitely a challenge!

"Finally!" she exclaimed, giggling, having the time of her life. The tunnel eventually opened up as the ramp shifted slightly to a more straightened path. She sighed in relief, having passed the tunnel at last. Daylight shined in her eyes as she spotted another river of liquefied candy and an odd-looking bridge looming over it. She spotted several levers and switches but did not have enough time to figure out their functions.

"Huh?!" Out of the corner of her eye, Vanellope spotted another racer and, without thinking, she swerved her car to a stop. Unfortunately, she failed to notice that the bridge was slippery. The car tilted too far to the right and, before she knew it, her car had completely turned over, causing it to crash and blink out of existence.

She panted and braced her feet on the ground, finding her bearing after a bit. Looking around, she spotted the other racer, who seemed to be frozen to the spot. "Hey! What is your…"

She never finished her sentence, she couldn't. She admitted to being a lot of things in her gaming life, but cruel was not one of them. The other girl was shaking in fear, and doing a lousy job of hiding any emotion if she was indeed trying. "Okay, calm down. I'm not hurt, see?" Vanellope gestured all over her body. The other girl nodded but said nothing.

There was no way in gaming hell that this girl was one of the racers Vanellope knew. She wore a brown skirt and dress combination, along with brown shoes and brown shocks. The dress seemed to be made out of slightly cheap material, plain but clean. She had short black hair and no special hat or any accessories like the other racers. From her design, it was clear she was meant to be in Sugar Rush. It all made no sense. Yet, here she was.

"Um, are you a new racer?" Vanellope asked.

The girl just kept staring at Vanellope.

"Okay…my name is Vanellope. You got a name?" Obviously, this was routine. Of course the girl had a name. The president of the game hated to introduce herself with her title so she kept it basic.

A shake of the head was all she got in return. A shake. Vanellope laughed a bit. "Not sure if you're trying to tell a joke or not, heh. It was kind of funny. So, your name, please?"

The girl tilted simply tilted her head to the side.

"Look, I'm not going to scare you or hurt you or anything like that. You are clearly part of the new upgrade, and you must have a name, so what is it?" Her patience was beginning to wear thin.

Truthfully, game characters had their names and even false histories programmed into themselves. Sometimes, it would take months for their real personalities to actually show up "behind closed doors," so to speak. Vanellope still remembered her first few months after being installed. She had acted naturally when selected and controlled by a player. But once the arcade closed for the day, she felt empty, like a hollow shell. Just like the rest.

Over time, however, (and this was true for all game characters ) her sentience started to arise, and she formed her own life and personality. This girl was clearly new and needed some guidance. A character without a name, however, was unheard of—in the arcade, at least.

"Um, I don't think I have a name," the girl muttered. The first thing she'd ever said made Vanellope roll her eyes.

"Of course you do! This happens to all of us. C'mon to the castle, so I can check your code!"

"Check your code" was a phrase that always took on multiple meanings. She meant actually taking a look at the game's new code inside of the CPU using a special passageway. It would allow her to check out what the girl's purpose was in the game and if she was a racer or not. Also, she could check out her code in person by getting to know the girl better.

The president turned around and started walking off the track. The strange girl did not follow. Noticing the problem right away, Vanellope turned around and, without warning, grabbed the strange girl's hand and beckoned her to follow. The girl, of course, did so without thinking at all.

All game characters knew this symptom all too well. There was no name for it, but it meant that this girl was susceptible to being controlled by both a player and a game character until she found her personality. Awkwardly, Vanellope led the girl back to the palace and instructed her to wait in the throne room. It was an odd thing to not have full sentience, but the girl could obviously feel some emotions. The president knew this because the girl was shaking slightly near the main throne as she left her.

"Alright, let's see…Up, down, right, right, left, X, Y, and start." The president was thankful that a new security door had been installed in the code room. She could not decipher everything. She might have been a game character but, technically speaking, she was only nine years old. If you counted how old the game cabinet was, she was twelve.

Sour Bill was there to help. Vanellope tied some candied rope onto her waist and jumped into the code room. The upgrade was easy to spot, something brand new. Eventually, the president and her assistant spotted a character code box that was new to them.

"Okay…_Blank?!"_ In a spot where the girl's name should have been, it was blank. Vanellope looked back at her own box and it was perfectly labeled, so obviously something wasn't wrong with their game. She turned to Sour Bill, who looked just as puzzled.

Shaking her head, she decided to inspect the new girl's code. She was clearly a player and slightly different than the others, but they were all like that. "I don't get it!" she exclaimed. Her assistant didn't have a clue either.

Sour Bill pondered this as they left back for the throne room. "Perhaps your friend Calhoun would know what this means? This is an upgrade and all, and she is in a newer game…" He trailed off, not believing his own words would be useful. He never actually did-to an extent. He was never a _depressing_ character, but wasn't far off.

"That's it! I'll just take her to the sergeant! Thanks, Sour Bill!" She hugged him and left the sticky candy in silence. He smiled for the first time that day.

Vanellope returned to the throne room and began, "Hey, we found…"

The mystery girl jumped in surprise, having been caught inspecting _her_ throne out of sheer curiosity. She gave a sheepish smile and gulped, hoping she wasn't in trouble for moving.

"Uh, it's a neat throne, huh? You okay?"

The girl gave a simple nod and turned back to her stoic expression. This was starting to annoy the president but she stayed patient. "Okay, so, listen. We're heading to Game Central Station to see a friend. She might be able to find out why you have no name." Vanellope turned around to leave before grabbed the girl's hand again. "You do _want_ a name right?"

"Yes?" the girl nervously replied.

Vanellope couldn't help but giggle a bit, trying her best not to hurt the new girl's feelings. She was just glad they did not run into the other racers. New game characters were always vulnerable, like children who were far too innocent for their own good.

They decided to simple walk to the tram from the castle. The girl took in a few sights but for the most part she remained silent. It unnerved Vanellope but she kept her patience through out.

Sitting in the tram, Vanellope felt an awkward silence. It wasn't that unnerving since the girl barely had a personality, but she couldn't help but feel bad for the brown-clad racer who was doing nothing more than examining her shoes.

"Hey," Vanellope whispered. The girl looked up with the same stoic expression that was slowly turning into a frown. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," the girl answered. She wasn't okay. Far from it. Being brought into a game was an odd experience for new characters. They were forced to see that they were, in fact, in a game and not real in the sense of their backstory. At least that's what Vanellope, Ralph, and all her friends went through. However, this girl did not seem to have a backstory in her code box. She would remain empty until she started talking more.

"Um, you don't seem fine. You really should talk more. Like, now would be good."

"About what?" This at least got more of a response. The tram was at the halfway point.

"Anything. Maybe you could ask me questions and I can ask you something. Like…oh! What were you doing on the bridge anyway?"

The girl's cheeks reddened, obviously embarrassed. The girl mumbled something that the president couldn't hear.

"What was that?" Vanellope asked.

"Um…"

"Just say it!"

The nameless girl flinched but nodded slowly. "I was just trying to get something to drink and, um, go to the bathroom…" she admitted.

That did it. Vanellope tried her best to hold back but failed. She laughed and laughed the rest of the tram ride there. Game characters did have to use things like bathroom, but it was somewhat different from real humans. By the time they arrived, the president received the only amount of emotion the girl had dared to show so far aside from fear. The girl was glaring at Vanellope.

The president muttered, "Um, sorry. Hehe, it's an old joke, sort of. I'm just trying to help…"

"Then why are you laughing?!" the girl snapped. The president looked meekly away in response. She mentally admitted that she was being rude, but she never thought in a million years that the quiet girl would outright yell.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay?" Vanellope mentally scolded herself for ever thinking of laughing at the poor girl. She had to just keep reminding herself that she was brand new and that it was her job to lead the new girl and guide her, not make her feel unwanted.

The nameless girl sighed and nodded. With a sigh of relief, Vanellope grabbed the girl by the hand and led her away from the door. Again, it seemed odd that the surge protector never showed up. The president felt awkward leading a girl her size through Game Central Station like she was a child. Vanellope just kept mentally reminding herself that, in essence, the nameless girl _was_ a child and she was the adult. At least she was in this situation.

"What's that?" The girl sprang to attention, pointing in the direction of a random game.

"That's my friend's game, 'Wreck-It Ralph!'"

"Oh. Wait, what's that?" She pointed to another game.

The president rolled her eyes and responded, "That's Pac-Man."

"Oh. So wait, then what'-"

Vanellope interrupted, "Look, we really need to get you to Tappers, where I can hopefully find one of my friends. She can help you. I can't at the moment. I usually can, being the president of our game and all…" The nameless girl's eyes widened at this, but she said nothing. "Once we figure out why you have no name, then we can go sight-seeing. How's that sound?"

"Uh okay…But why don't I have a name?"

"Like I said, I can't help with that, but _she_ can."

They continued to walk until finally they arrived at _"the hang-out_," as she liked to call it in her head. _"Tappers_" never felt quite right.

Vanellope turned her head back to the girl and rolled her eyes when she found her returning to a shy state once again. She hated what she was about to do, more than she hated sour candy. It was one of the rare moments in her life when she decided to not only _be_ nice, but to act it, too. Not that she ever considered herself unfair; she would always do the right thing. But it was no fun doing the right thing and acting nice about it.

"Listen, are you scared?" the president asked. She received no response. "You can tell me!" She offered the girl smile, but to no affect. "I used to be scared, too, you know." An ear perked up at this. Vanellope knew she was getting through to her. "I worried that the other racers would never like me and I would never get to race. We'll find your place and we can get you, um, friends. How's that sound?" She was never good with speeches, but at least the girl's shyness seemed to melt away. The nameless girl noticed that their hands had stopped touching and quickly corrected it, much to the confusion of Vanellope.

"Are we friends?"

That took Vanellope by surprise, but saying no seemed like the dumbest thing she could ever do. And she had once challenged Ralph to a belching contest. "Yes, I would love to be your friend. Now, how-"

A code-crunching hug interrupted her. She smiled a bit and then used her code to quickly escape the grasp. The girl looked confused for a moment but not from what Vanellope did. She was looking down at her own dress. Vanellope said, "Whoa…How'd you do that?"

"I don't…I_…What?"_ She was no longer wearing the plain brown dress, but something that a princess would wear. It was elaborate. Perhaps,_ too_ elaborate.

"That's crazy…That's my dress! Or, it would be if I wore it, but I hate that thing. Heh." However, the nameless girl did not hate Vanellope's dress at all. She didn't feel silly or out of place. It was _her_ dress after all. At least, that's what she assumed.

"Let me try something…" Vanellope tilted her head to the side, stuck out her tongue and gently touched the nameless girl with her right hand and glitched. As expected, the brown plain dress was back. She glitched again and again, switching it back and forth until deciding on keeping the pink dress. "Well, well, well. Looks like we found out something about you!"

The girl asked, "We _did?"_ She was more confused than anything. True, she was only a day old or so, but this still made no sense.

"Sure! You have the ability to glitch, just like me! I think?"

The girl shook her head. She was _mostly _sure what a game glitch was, and it didn't sound like a good thing. "I don't want to be a glitch!"

"Hey! I'm a glitch and I'm pretty happy about it! No one cares and this is pretty cool!"

"It is?"

"Yep! Now, enough stalling. Let's go find Calhoun!" Vanellope exclaimed. The girl was too busy inspecting her fingers and new dress to obey. Resisting the urge to yell after her, Vanellope glitched back, grabbed the girl's hand and glitched her into the bar. Sure enough, with her luck, she spotted Felix and Calhoun, but no Ralph. "Hey! Calhoun!"

"Kid? Uh, were kind of busy here…" Calhoun exclaimed. Felix was dressed in a fancy suit. The sergeant's gun was missing in action and her hair looked combed. They were clearly on some kind of date, but it all went over the young president's head.

"Look, I need to talk to you. Like, now!"

"What is it? I'm really busy here, and it isn't Cy-Bugs!"

"We got a new character!"

"Uh…" Felix muttered. Vanellope turned to Felix, who gave a sheepish smile. Being the gentleman that he was, he allowed the conversation to continue. Even if they were being interrupted. "That's good? But-"

"She needs your help and she's kind of _brand new_ if you know what I mean."

"Oh, well…" Calhoun hesitated while looking back at Felix.

"Go on, hon. I'll meet you back at the usual spot! We have until Monday anyway!" Felix said and was out of sight in an instant. The sergeant had her hand out to stop him, but he was already gone.

Calhoun muttered, "_Great._ Why is she in your dress?"

"Well, I think she has some type of power, maybe even a glitch. Just watch." Vanellope interrupted the girl's sightseeing of the other game characters and glitched her dress out of existence. She kept doing it until the Sargent stopped her.

"Alright, that's definitely odd. Not unheard of, though." She grabbed the girl and tried the same thing but nothing happened. "Girl, uh, what's your name?"

"That's the other problem, she doesn't have one. We even checked her code box. No label."

"Again, not unheard of, but…in an _arcade?_ That is messed-up, kid. Okay, try and glitch for me when I grab your hand."

The girl was perplexed. "I don't know how," she admitted, slightly confused.

Calhoun turned to Vanellope. "Didn't you teach her how?"

"Well, we just met. I didn't know she could glitch or whatever it is she's doing. I thought you could help!"

"Terrific, thanks for coming straight to me…" Despite the obvious sarcasm, the president just beamed, feeling slightly cocky (and just wanting an excuse to smile). Calhoun ordered, "Alright Vanellope, grab her hand while I do the same, and do that glitch thing again."

What happened next was both shocking and, to the president, _cool._ Standing before them was a miniature version of the Sergeant, only with different-colored hair. "Bingo. She's a changing character," Calhoun remarked.

"A _what?"_ both racers said in unison.

"In her code is the ability to change appearance and clothes. Usually, you don't see this kind of thing in arcades, but it must be part of the new upgrade they installed in your game."

"Oh, neat! But then, how come she has no name?"

"Yeah!" the nameless girl whined.

"Beats me, maybe the player gets to pick your name each time? It would make sense, even if it does virtually nothing for the game itself."

The girl sadly mumbled, "Oh…"

"Aww, don't be that way. We can just name ya! Who cares if a player changes your name and clothes each time you race? You still need a name and that, uh…" Vanellope's confidence wavered and she turned to the Sergeant for help. Some truths were hard to admit to herself. Naming another character just seemed like too much.

"Don't look at me! I'm nobody's mama here! Ask one of your racer friends or something…" Calhoun's voice trailed off when she noticed the girl was now carrying a miniature version of her gun, pointing it at a glass in awe and curiosity. "No!"

As it turns out, the word _no_ was the right trigger to get the child to pull the trigger. She shattered the root beer glass into a million pieces. She stood there in utter shock, her virtual mind frozen. The Sergeant grabbed the gun out of her hand and before Calhoun could utter a speech about crazy acts, the president beat her to it.

"Are you crazy!?" Spit flew off her lips, nearly painting the new girl with her salvia. The girl flinched back, too scared to move but still, shutters of fear happened anyway. "You never, and I mean _NEVER_ fire a gun outside of your own game! What if you died?! You don't regenerate unless you're in Sugar Rush! Your _own_ game!"

Calhoun barked, "Kid! Calm down!"

Vanellope turned to her in confusion. The sergeant sighed and pointed back to the miniature commando. She was crying. Mentally slapping herself in the face again, Vanellope realized that this was just not her day. She was a terrible "teacher," and she knew it. Making a new character cry was just _low._

"I'm sorry…please, calm down." That did nothing at all. She wasn't trying in her attempt to calm her down; Vanellope just assumed that, by asking, it would happen. It didn't. The girl kept on crying, quietly but obvious.

Then, the sergeant did something that she would later deny for the rest of her gaming days. She patted the girl on her back. "You didn't know, but listen to the old president here. You've got to be careful outside your game. Now, glitch her back. She doesn't need the gun." Calhoun walked away.

It took Vanellope a moment to shake off what she had just done. She then glitched the girl back into the brown dress and waited for her to calm down. "Feeling better?"

The girl sniffed, "That was mean."

She had to agree with the girl. She _was _being mean, even if it was for her own good. "I'm sorry." Vanellope ran up and hugged her. "I'll try not to yell, but I'm not good with new characters…I just don't want you to get hurt, you know?" A nod in response, and then quickly back to the shy attitude. "We really need to get you a name, heh." The girl nodded after sniffing away her remaining tears. "Maybe I should take you to Ralph!"

"I just want to go back," she said, seeming fearful.

"Why?" Vanellope asked.

"_Please,"_ the girl pleaded.

She knew exactly what the girl was feeling at that very moment: fear of dying without an extra life. It happened to all game characters the first time they heard the terrible truth. Die outside of your own game and you stay dead. You can regenerate in your own game just fine and stay the same.

"Okay, just follow me." She did not feel like agitating the poor girl anymore that day. She led her back to the tram but did not get on. "Just stay in Sugar Rush near the tram, okay?" A shy nod. "I'll be right back!"

Vanellope waved as the tram sped off, but received no wave in return. "Ugh, new characters. I feel like a mother…Ew." She shuddered at the thought. "Time to get Ralph." She wasn't sure if he could help her give the girl a name, but it couldn't hurt.

Plus, she couldn't bring the nameless girl with her. Not yet. She was scared out of her mind to be outside of her game, and for good reason. All game characters had to learn it and they all got over it eventually. Still, most did not learn _that_ way, and it made the president feel bad. Shrugging it off, she found the correct tram and boarded, hoping upon hope that her oldest friend would have a solution.


	3. Chapter Two A Helping Hand

Chapter Two: A Helping Hand

The mystery girl stood by the tram entrance, awkwardly waiting for her friend to return. She was just glad to be back. It meant she was safe. She was feeling extremely bored, however. It was half the reason why she was on that bridge in the first place. Exploring a game world was meant to be a natural part of a new character's function.

She took a seat on a nearby jawbreaker and sighed. After several minutes, she got even more bored and tried to make her "glitching" (as Vanellope put it) work. Nothing she tried would change her dress into something else. It was frustrating. What that Sergeant had said to her struck something inside. She knew that her function was to change her appearance, but then why wouldn't it work for _her?_ Oddly enough, it was more frustrating than not having a name.

It felt quite tingly when Vanellope had used her power on her skin. First, she tried thinking of any of the new outfits that she had. Nothing worked. Then, she tried concentrating harder on them out of desperation but, again, nothing. Boredom took her over once more.

She spotted a sour candy on the ground and was soon sucking on it after a quick pick up. To her surprise, the candy actually tasted quite good. Deep down in her code, something was informing her that sour candy was often ignored by the racers in the game.

"Are you sure that Pac Man will even listen to us?" She heard a voice which clearly did not belong to the president of the game.

"Ehh…fifty-fifty shot. He is an older character, after all." A second voice, similar to Vanellope's, but not exactly hers, answered. The voices were heading in her direction, which caused the girl to freeze up.

"I kind of like those ghost friends of his…What?" She assumed another girl was getting dirty looks of some kind. The girls who were approaching did not seem that nice.

"Well…Huh?" Three girls now stood before the new racer. The one who had just spoken wore pink all over. Her helmet consisted of a half-slice of pink candy that covered her blonde hair. Her jacket consisted solely of the color pink and was unzipped. She seemed to be still dressed in her racing gear, wearing white gloves. Candy-cane striped socks and pink shoes completed her outfit. "Uh….Hi?" she said to the newcomer. The other girls were too flustered to speak. The newcomer took no notice of them.

"Hello," she simply answered. The girl had no name to give, after all.

"Are you a new racer?" A simple nod was all she got in response. "Okay, are you going to tell us your name?"

"Well, I don't know _your_ names," she shot back, hoping it would stall for time. She was starting to feel silly for not having one of her own.

"Name's Taffyta, though I'm sure you already—oh, wait. New character. Right." Her spunky attitude was forgotten, remembering that the strange girl was new.

One of the other girls finally spoke up. "I'm Snowanna." Turning to her, the newcomer noticed that she seemed to have a rainbow-colored theme going on. Her hairstyle almost looked like a virtual snowcone. She had a purple dress with a pink skirt, and purple socks and shoes.

"Crumbelina," the third girl replied. She seemed slightly more outgoing in her style of clothes. She wore a white racing hat and a golden dress and skirt. She had brown hair, along with brown socks and shoes. "So, name?"

"Don't have one," the girl admitted, slightly ashamed.

"That makes no sense!" the others blurted.

"They said I was a changing character." The concept was brand new to her and, judging by their perplexed looks, new to them as well. Everything, however, even in her own game, seemed new to the slowly-growing consciousness that waited inside the new character.

"A _wha?!_ Never heard of that!" Taffyta took a step forward and, without warning, grabbed the girl to spin her around and examine her clothes. "And why's your dress so plain? What the heck?"

"Uh…I can-"

"Seriously, are you a glitch or something? No name? And that dress really does _stink!"_ Crumbelina joined their insults, adding to the slowly-growing laughter. The mystery racer did not like them. At least the president had apologized when she was purposefully rude.

"Yeah, well…Glitches are cool!" She was almost entirely unsure of her own statement, but her one and only friend did tell her that they were cool. She was also starting to really miss that gun from before. It would have helped. The others all paused at this for a moment.

"Listen up, _glitch_, if you are one, that is. We already have that Vanellope on the track glitching up the place, cheating to win each race. She may be our leader, but that doesn't mean we have to like her that much!" Taffyta snapped, though she wasn't all that sure of her little speech.

"Y-yeah! We don't need another glitch on the track making things unfair for us!" Crumbelina had always thought of herself as a bad girl, but she was feeling exceptionally bad for saying that. She didn't hate Vanellope, but they all did feel it was unfair what she could do on the track when compared to what _they_ could do. They each had their own unique ability, but glitching was not something any of them could do.

The girl fumbled, "Look, I just-"

"What? _Spit it out!"_ Snowanna felt like she was just going along with the crowd. She wanted nothing to do with the new girl. She didn't hate her, but she just wanted to leave. Their unofficial leader was always Taffyta, and peer pressure was her game.

"Can we just be friends?" the nameless girl blurted. Friendship felt good with Vanellope, so why wouldn't it work with them? She assumed they were being rude because she hadn't asked yet. Perhaps she was being rude herself?

"_Friends?!_ Ha!" Taffyta scoffed and laughed, soon joined by the uneasy laughter of the other two. "We don't need friends out on the courses. Just leave, you _glitch_!"

That did it. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to try, but anger was now swelling through the new racer. She was mad and wanted to hit something. Unbeknownst to her, when she had copied the Sergeant's code, she kept something, something _mean._

"Oh, I'm a glitch, am I?! You pansy-butt, candy-sucking excuse for a racer!" The new girl stepped forward, making Taffyta flinch. "Why, I've seen better racers down in the Candy Kid Village!" She slapped both of her hands over her mouth in shock. She had no clue where any of what she just said was coming from, or how she even knew about a village.

Slowly looking down, she spotted the outfit from before, now fully-equipped. Black metal armor had enveloped her. Near her knees, she saw two red lights and, around her neck, more lights flickered (for show, she assumed). The gun had also returned, along with metal boots. She was speechless and in shock. Sure, she was angry, but she never meant to yell like _that._

"Freak!" Taffyta spat out as the three gunned it for the tram into _Game Central Station_. The nameless girl was in such a state of shock that she did not notice the approaching newcomers from the tram or their conversation with the racers. Snapping out of it, she took a few deep breaths. After relaxing, she found that the costume and gun were slowly disappearing, leaving behind the brown dress from before.

"But-"

"We're back! Seriously, what's up with _them?_ Did ya scare them off or something?" Vanellope asked.

What was meant as a joke instead hurt the girl deep down. She had indeed scared them off. "Yes, I guess I did."

"Oh?" She slowly turned around and paused. Vanellope was standing in front of her, still dressed in the green jacket from before. Mint-colored clothes seemed to be her thing, with mint candy-cane socks as well. Vanellope had brought a friend. "Well, whatever. I'd like you to meet my friend Ralph!"

"Hey, kid." Standing before her was the largest game character she had ever seen. Granted, she had only seen a few in her short life, but he was simply _huge_. Red suspenders seemed to be his clothing style. His hands looked bigger than her. He was smiling but it failed to put her at ease. "So, you need a name, huh?"

"Yes, I do. If it isn't too much trouble," she blurted, her words seeming to come out of nowhere. Then, the tingling sensation returned. All three of them gasped. She looked down and she was wearing the poofy princess dress from before. "I don't…this happened before!"

"Um yeah, I know it did. I was there, remember?"

"No, I got mad at those racers after they made fun of me-"

"They _what?!"_ Vanellope spat. Apparently, making fun of another racer was not the right thing to do at all.

"Yeah, but when I got mad at them I got that gun back and the armor…"

"Hmm, try getting mad again!" Vanellope suggested. Ralph stood off to the side, at a loss for words.

The girl asked, "Why would I get mad at you? You're my friend..."

"Hey, Ralph and I get mad at each other all the time and we're friends! Isn't that right, snot for brains?"

"Can it, pencil neck!" Ralph shot back.

"Huh?" the girl muttered. Basic knowledge was something that all game characters were born with. Logic was what drove them to seek out their secondary purposes. That, or their emotions and ways of thinking. Logic was telling her that fighting with one another did not make sense for a friendship. "I don't get it. Why would you fight if you're friends?"

"'Cause it's fun! Now, c'mon, get angry! I want to see that gun again. It's gotta be anger that makes you change!"

Ralph began, "Uh, Vanellope, maybe it's not-"

Vanellope interrupted, "I'm onto something. Now, get angry, girl!"

"No."

"Do it!" Vanellope urged.

"No!"

"DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!" Vanellope jumped up and down after each iteration of the phrase.

"Can it, you annoying barf brain!" the girl screamed. Her clothes did not change into that of a Cy-Bug killing soldier, but into the president's garb. They almost looked like clones. "Why do I keep… _Grrrrr!"_ She hit her hand on the ground and a blue light enveloped her. When the light disappeared, she was ten pixels in distance away from the two. She had teleported or glitched.

"How?!" Vanellope blurted. She was starting to understand her new friend more and more, but she assumed that she got the Sergeant's gun because she had her costume.

"Like I was trying to tell you, kid…" Ralph paused as he waited for the two to listen up. "I think her changing thing is controlled by emotions. She was angry when she turned into mini Calhoun there. She was bratty when she just turned into you, and she was shy when she turned back just like she is now."

Vanellope tilted her head to the side, focusing entirely on Ralph, before turning back to notice that the green jacket was now replaced with the brown dress. She exclaimed, "That's it! You change because of your emotions! Quick, change into Ralph!"

"I don't—" Her hand was whipped back as Vanellope grabbed her and glitched the nameless girl after touching Ralph. Now, she wore his clothes and her hands had tripled in size. Several seconds later, she turned back into her original form.

"This is so cool! You're awesome, you know that? Isn't she awesome?" the president gushed.

Ralph chuckled. "What happened to 'snot for brains'?"

"Oh, shut up."

"So, I can change into anything?" The girl's emotions were long forgotten. She stood there, still in the brown dress but believing her sentence entirely.

"I guess. Oh, that's right! Ralph! Name her!"

Ralph replied, "Uh…no?"

"I can't name her! Seriously, just think of something already. This is getting old."

"Okay, um, 'Changer'? Nah, that's dumb. 'Changelina'?" Ralph offered. Vanellope was not amused.

"Um," the girl mumbled, not knowing exactly what to say.

"What is it? Do you like that name?" Vanellope asked.

"…Yes."

Vanellope nodded and smiled. "Then, nice to meet ya, Changelina!"

Ralph agreed, "Yep! Alright, I'm gonna head back to my own game if that's all you needed-"

Vanellope grabbed his right hand and pulled for all she was worth. "Oh, no you don't! You promised to help me show… Changelina here the ropes and hang out with us all day!"

"I did? Well, I don't think I did. I mean, probably not, and-"

"I'm not letting you mope around all day about _the end_ or something like that. You're my friend and I want to hang out _RIGHT NOW_, even if you are a _B.O._ monster."

"Annoying twit," he muttered, causing her to smirk. "Alright, fine! But I'm not a racer and you know that!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not a teacher or a mommy, and Changelina is new."

Changelina asked, "Um, what are we doing exactly?"

Vanellope smirked at the meek girl's question. "First off, we need to get you some attitude! Controlling those emotions would be nice, so you can just glitch any clothes on at any time!"

"Attitude? How?" The new girl was certainly not feeling anything close to the attitude that the president wanted.

"That's where Ralph comes in. Oh, and we need to build you a racecar!"

Changelina nodded at this. A racecar was in the back of her mind. She knew if a player chose her that it would be handled automatically, but off the clock from players, she would need to figure out that kind of stuff herself.

They slowly started walking. Changelina took in the sights of her world for the first time. Her mind was finally somewhat eased and she was able to focus. The world they resided in was actually quite beautiful. Jawbreaker rocks, sour candies, chocolate-covered roads and rivers all captivated her. The world was vibrant and colorful, details even painted into rock surfaces. At least, it_ looked_ like paint from a close-up view. She ignored the sarcastic comments or rude nature of her new friends. She wanted to explore!

"What's that?!" Changelina asked, pointing to another rock surface, this one the fifth they had passed.

"That's just a pie crust hill…Oh that's lovely…" Vanellope exclaimed before realizing what her friend had just tried.

The new girl had jumped head first into it, devouring large amounts of chocolate pie.

"I know I used to hate chocolate, but I think she has the right idea…Huh," Ralph said.

When Changelina had finished her pie, she was wearing Ralph's uniform again. She giggled bashfully and instantly switched back to the shy-girl uniform that they had come to know.

"Food does it also…or, is there something we're missing, Vanellope?" Ralph questioned but Vanellope was worlds away at that point.

Changelina commented, "That was good…"

"Nope. Maybe food does it too. Or maybe she kept your emotions and hunger? You do kind of eat a lot, stink head."

"What's that?!" Changelina pointed to a candy-coated hill.

Vanellope groaned. "Alright, that's it! Enough sightseeing; we need to get to the mini-game to make a car for ya!"

"But, I'm hungry," Changelina whined.

"You're also wearing my clothes again! Quit it!" Vanellope scowled. The girl simply smirked and glitched away to the new candy hill.

"Well, I'd say she has some attitude, eh, kid?" Ralph smirked.

"I'd say she's stealing my gig," she muttered.

Ralph gently punched her. "Hey, you were new once, _remember_?"

She wanted to sigh or groan or punch him back, but she did remember. Even if she was meant to be the game's leader, it still felt odd being the new racer after their memories were restored. She would never admit it to even Ralph, but her own memories were never fixed. That was why she wanted to be president in the first place and _not_ a princess.

She sighed as she realized that feeling jealous just made her feel not only stupid, but like a hypocrite to boot. When the game was restored, she got a chance to race. However, she had only been alive for around five years or so, making her feel way out of place on the track and with her racer friends. She knew what Changelina was going through and she shouldn't be scowling at her for trying to have a bit of fun.

"Yeah I do, I guess I should stop being like you, huh?" Vanellope asked.

Ralph raised an eyebrow. "Like _me?_ Wha-"

"I meant a lame brain."

"Ahh. Yeah, stop being like that and just show her the way. Ehh…I'm out of insults for now."

"Like I said…_lame brain_." She giggled and ran up to join Changelina in her feast of a candy mountain. Ralph shrugged and grabbed some of his own for the road.

"Had your fill?" Vanellope asked the girl. She nodded and smiled as they picked up their pace. "Good, we can't have you eating your car. That's Ralph's job."

"That was one time, and it regenerated!"

Vanellope ignored him and beckoned the girl to follow again, this time to the edge of their game. The facility that housed the mini-game was also responsible for automatically regenerating their cars on the track. They soon found themselves inside of a rather dark building before the lights turned on, illuminating everything.

"Alright Changelina, pick your starting car!" Vanellope exclaimed while gesturing to several pictures of cars. Each car had a slightly different design, ranging from basic to larger designs that were more powerful, but far more difficult to control. She shrugged and picked the plainest-looking car she could find in the list. It was blue with no decorations, like her dress. Instantly on the conveyer belt in front of them, the car was spit out as the first mini-game sprung to life.

"C'mon Changelina, you need to pick the right decorations for your car!" Vanellope exclaimed.

The first mini-game was changed after Vanellope became annoyed with it. It was one of her first orders as president. Changelina looked over the first set of decorations and decided on exclusive choosing sour candy to line her car, much to the surprise of Vanellope. Changelina had very few likes and dislikes in her short life, but she knew she loved sour candy. Soon, her car was lined all around with round multi-colored pieces of it.

The next set of decorations focused on the bottom of the car. Two sour-candied strips lined around the entire vehicle. Everything in the game was automatic, with the exception of actually cooking the vehicle at the end.

The car moved forward on the platform inside a giant oven. Changelina watched, confused, and called back to Vanellope, "What do I do now?!"

"Just let Ralph do his thing!" Vanellope cheered.

"Thanks for coming to me…" he muttered, beginning to blow steadily into a tube. On the side of the massive oven, a light turned on, signifying that it was cooking Changelina's new car at the right temperature. Ralph continued to blow into the tube until he was blue in the face. Finally, the oven dinged, and the car came out the other side.

A spotlight shined directly above the car for the three to see. To Vanellope, it looked like a multi-colored mess. It wasn't unbalanced in physical design in the slightest, but the colors were all over the place with no clear cohesion.

Ralph scratched his head. The car reminded him of the first car he and Vanellope built together-only not as messy. Vanellope cringed a bit as she looked it over. Hesitantly, she turned to face Changelina and, in an instant, all her worries died down. Changelina was smiling from ear to ear.

"I take it you like your car there?" Vanellope asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah…" Changelina said breathlessly. Ralph, never one for subtlety, chuckled.

"Alright then, kid, let's take it for a spin on the practice race!" Ralph offered, while gesturing for her to enter the car.

Changelina frowned. "I, uh…"

"Don't know how to drive yet?" Vanellope asked. An embarrassed nod was all she got in return. Changelina knew that if a human player chose her, her actions would be automatic and she would not need to know a thing. Behind closed doors, she would need to learn. "No problem! We can use the practice track and I'll teach ya!" Vanellope proudly offered.

"Yep, that's what she does best, so," Ralph paused and scooped Changelina up, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the girl, and dumped her into the car, finishing, "let's get going!"

Changelina soon found herself on the practice track. Her car was on and humming very loudly with her body vibrating in her seat. She looked down at her control panel and frowned. She realized that she had absolutely no idea what to do. In most racers' code, they would normally have a basic understanding of a vehicle, but she barely knew what the steering wheel was. That, thankfully, did not confuse her that much.

Vanellope stood off on the other side of the track, cheering her on to just _go_. So she did. Changelina stepped on what she hoped was the gas pedal and her car rocketed straight onto the track. The other two winced as the girl got out of her car on shaking legs and collapsed on the ground, her hands barely holding her up.

Vanellope walked over and helped her stand up. "Okay, believe it or not that's pretty much the first thing I did when I first started my car." Changelina raised an eyebrow at this. Vanellope nodded. "We just got to take it slower, can you do that?"

"Yeah," Changelina grumbled, while walking back to her car. She then climbed in and, with instruction from Ralph, set the car in reverse. Not trusting her own feet, she used her right hand to push the gas down and gently backed up to the starting position. She hesitated and looked over at her friends, who were giving her the thumbs-up, though Vanellope faked a smile. "Here we go."

The first few attempts ended up with more crashing, thankfully not head-on. Eventually, she got the hang of driving around the track under ten miles per hour and, despite the slow speeds, Vanellope was still cheering her on like a madwoman. She felt silly doing it, but she knew it was important to encourage a new driver.

"C'mon, faster Changelina!" Vanellope cheered. Ralph looked skeptical, but egged her on too.

"'Kay!" she yelled over her engine and gunned the gas down. Her first loop around the track going thirty miles per hour felt amazing to her. Euphoria flooded into her system from the speed alone, but the turning and the wind blowing through her hair made her grin. Vanellope rolled her eyes, but was happy that her new friend got a taste of the road, even if it was incredibly slow by her standards.

"C'mon, ten more miles per hour, you can do it!" Vanellope screamed. The affect was instantaneous. Changelina set her car to forty and swerved on the first turn, almost hitting the side of the track. She quickly corrected her course and was soon going around and around.

Changelina stopped the car once bored and grinned. "Great job! Now you're ready for the real thing, a race with me!" Vanellope announced.

"Uh, squirt, don't you think that's a little soon?" Ralph nervously said.

"I know what I'm doing! She'll be fine!" Vanellope snapped in response.

Changelina and Ralph were not convinced, but the two girls soon found themselves on the regular track, waiting to race. Changelina gulped while Vanellope smirked.

"Okay girl, just take it easy on her and see what she's made of. No need to whoop her or anything," Vanellope said to herself.

Changelina looked stoic to Ralph but, on the inside, she was hyperventilating. She wasn't sure what would happen if she won or even lost; Vanellope had not been clear on that. If only she knew it was a friendly race. She assumed it was a real race.

"Ready?" Ralph asked, while holding a flag in his hand.

Changelina broke out of her thoughts and nodded.

"Set?"

She certainly seemed set to race.

"_Go!" _

Shocked by his scream, Changelina gunned the gas. Vanellope soon followed close behind.

The track went straight for a while, with only a few candied obstacles to avoid as both cars twisted around each and every one. Vanellope held back her glitching powers and instead did her best to study Changelina's driving style. It seemed like Changelina was simply going along for the ride and enjoying herself instead of trying to beat Vanellope.

Soon, they neared a spiraling hill. As they approached it, Vanellope unleashed her ace in the whole. Changelina's vehicle was faster and she was ahead of Vanellope as they swirled around and around up the hill, until Vanellope glitched ahead.

Changelina blinked. She hadn't realized that could even happen on the track. Could _she_ do that? She was feeling shy as ever and certainly did not feel cocky or angry or bratty. But she was trying to feel that way in any sense of those words. She tried to get after Vanellope, actually enjoying the race for the first time. Vanellope noticed as she glitched ahead all over the place. Changelina grew frustrated, until…

"Stop glitching, you barf brain!" Suddenly, her car was not her own. Vanellope nearly crashed when she realized what happened. Changelina's car had changed into the president's own car and she was wearing Vanellope's jacket again. "Oh, it's on!" Changelina roared, and soon the two were in a glitching match around the track.

"Changelina, watch out! On this track, you can't just glitch that much without-" Vanellope tried to bark out a warning, but was silenced.

"Nice try slow poke, but-"

Changelina felt aggressive and, for some reason, she did not feel like losing or even listening to her friend. Her emotions felt foreign but she could not ignore them. Unfortunately, it was those emotions that blinded and deafened her from advice that she really needed. She simply continued to glitch ahead faster and faster, not noticing that Vanellope had stopped her car from teleporting.

Without warning, her car gave way and skidded all around, until it finally broke apart entirely and de-pixelated from the world. Changelina was knocked to the ground at full force from the speed. Though she felt pain, the track was programmed to never harm a racer, unlike how their world worked outside the track.

The girl looked down and noticed her outfit had changed back. "I don't-"

"You okay?" Changelina looked up and noticed Vanellope seemed concerned and reached out to her to help her up. The girl nodded. "I tried to warn ya! When you glitch like that, your car…or, _my _car? Well, whichever, your car starts to de-pixelate over time, and if you do it too much-"

"Oh, okay. But, why did I-"

"Why did your car change into mine? Probably your ability. It's like you get cooler every hour! Amazing, huh?"

"I didn't _feel_ amazing! I yelled at you!" Changelina exclaimed, flustered.

"Yeah, what was up with that? Sounds like something I would say," Vanellope muttered.

"I, uh, I just felt like saying it?" the other girl offered sheepishly. Vanellope blinked a couple times, and then blinked some more.

Ralph then cleared his throat. "Maybe when you change you just get emotionally involved?"

"I guess…" Changelina replied in shame.

"I wonder what would happen if…Oh, this is gonna be good!" Vanellope cheered and laughed to herself, eliciting two very confused blank stares. "Changelina, how about I help you win a race against the other girls?"

"Uh…" Should she want to win a race? Vanellope was smiling enough for the very idea to seem like something she should be striving for, but winning or losing barely held any concept to her. Fun, on the other hand, did.

"Is it going to be fun?" Changelina asked in an excited tone.

"Oh," Vanellope paused, and draped her hand over her shoulder, adding, "_loads_ of fun, you just wait!"


	4. Chapter Three The Mystery Racer

Chapter Three: The Mystery Racer

"Are you sure about this?" Changelina asked in a hushed tone. Vanellope was standing in front of her with a wide grin.

"Just trust me, alright?" Vanellope replied in an exasperated tone. Vanellope knew what she was doing, or at least felt like she did. She hadn't done anything so far that was not for Changelina's benefit. So she found it both odd and annoying that Changelina kept questioning her.

"Okay… what do I do again?"

Vanellope smacked her face and slowly ran her hand down it at the girl's question. "It's simple, alright." Vanellope paused and looked at the other racers getting into their cars. "First, we all put in our coins to begin the roster race. All of our names will light up and we will get ready to drive. But this is where you come in!" She jabbed a finger into the girl's gut. "Wearing the robe I gave ya," she said, gesturing to the dark robe that Changelina was now wearing, which covered her face and body. "You'll walk up all 'casual' and 'cool' looking."

Changelina nodded. Vanellope had already explained the finer points of acting casual. She only hoped that she could pull it off.

Vanellope added, "You will look at the crowd and immediately pop your coin in to join the race. Then, walk up to Candlehead and take her costume. And then, after everyone is all amazed and maybe scared, _WE RACE!"_

"But what if it doesn't work?"

"What?" Vanellope replied in confusion.

"My power, my thing?"

"Just concentrate and I'm sure it'll work! Oh-I need to go, remember what we talked about!"

"Wait! What if I can't win the race?" This last question was not heard, the president leaving her behind, Changelina standing alone.

Vanellope entered her coin last and the entire roster was shown on the screen high up above the racers. A candy crowd was cheering various names to win.

"Alright, that everyone?" Vanellope called out, knowing full well that it wasn't.

"Yep! Let's get this show on the road," Crumbelina replied and jumped into her car. The other racers obliged by jumping into their cars in a synchronized union. Before any of the engines could start however, Crumbelina noticed a looming shadow out of the corner of her eye. "Huh?"

Changelina, still cloaked, slowly walked over to the racers and was immediately joined by well over a dozen eyes looming in her direction. Eventually, all eyes were on her. Changelina nervously looked them all over. The racers began to mutter amongst themselves.

She did her best to remain focused and hesitantly brought out one large golden coin from under her hood. The other racers gasped-except Vanellope, who figured her acting skills stunk anyway. With a fling, the coin was in motion and tossed into the air, landing in the large cup just above the starting line. It pixelated out of existence. The other racers had followed it entirely.

_**Racer Added**__: Mystery Racer_

More quiet and hushed talking began, but Changelina was going on autopilot. She found the car of her desire.

"What are you-eep!" Candlehead screeched as Changelina grabbed her hand. The mystery girl concentrated and strained her mind to will her glitch or whatever it is that she had into existence, ignoring the yanking from the other girl. Finally, she was rewarded and both girls felt an electrified pulse go through their bodies. Standing before them now was a clone of Candlehead, who was grinning from ear to ear.

The other racers were too shocked to do or say anything. Vanellope resisted the urge to cheer out in glee. She had finally had a racer who could match her!

"Who's ready to race?" Changelina's voice called out, her car flashing into existence. The other racers looked to see the sour-coated car and then looked back to Changelina, who had changed back into her robes from before. The mystery girl then jumped into her car and started her engine before anyone could get a single word in.

Vanellope then started her engine in return, which snapped the other racers out of their shock. They all turned on their cars, each and every racer taking nervous glances back at the mystery girl. Inside, Changelina was feeling a flutter of emotions, from nervous excitement to reckless aggression. No one emotion dominated fully, but excitement was close enough, she figured.

Three… The scoreboard ticked to life. Changelina's car was in the back and ready to go. Vanellope, out of respect for her fellow racers, had put in her coin second-to-last and was close by. She gave a simple wink to Changelina in a split-second decision, but no one noticed but her.

Two… All of the girls snapped to attention and awaited the final announcement, ready to gun their cars and speed off.

One… Changelina snapped and in a last-second decision, she concentrated. Her car willed to life and switched to Vanellope's. Vanellope was impressed, but hoped the girl remembered what she had told her about teleporting on the track.

_Go!_ All of the racers sprang to life and gunned their gas pedals. Changelina's car glitched ahead of all of them and she shrieked in laughter. Her car then glitched again back into the sour racer. Most of the racers were shocked and surprised, but kept their cars going at a steady pace to catch up.

Vanellope glitched as close to Changelina's car as she could. She hoped to at least finish the race in second place, so she focused on eliminating the other racers. To her right, Candlehead sped up and her car ran through a power-up box. A candy-powered gun materialized and aimed directly for Changelina's car. Vanellope panicked and rammed the side of her car, causing Candlehead to whip her head around. Vanellope played it off as "playing around" before speeding up. Candlehead silently cursed when she noticed the mystery girl's car had vanished up ahead.

Candlehead was not giving up so easily. All the cars whirled into a chocolate-coated tunnel with large pillars holding it up. She aimed her gun to the nearest pillar and fired, immediately blowing it to pieces. Her car sped by as two of the remaining racers were smashed to pixels and regenerated in last place. Changelina was still in first place, but Candlehead was doing her best to change that. She fired a few more shots, collapsing the tunnel almost entirely, but the three racers in the lead managed to escape without destroying their cars.

Changelina was in first, Vanellope in second, and Candlehead in third. The gun had disappeared after running out of ammo. Candlehead's car could not match their speeds. She grinned, noticing that the three were coming up on her favorite spot of the race, the place where her special talent came into play.

Changelina also noticed the hill and did her best to change into Candlehead in order to light up the cherry bomb traps that lined the hill. She concentrated and concentrated, but nothing would work. She was still the plain racer in first place who was about to be blown to smithereens. She turned back nervously and noticed that Candlehead had already begun to light one of the cherry bombs.

Vanellope saw her friend's distress but was unable to do anything but retain her lead in the race. If she fell behind, her friend would be on her own.

They were too late to plan anything; the bombs had begun to explode in a synchronized union only milliseconds apart. Candlehead grinned as the explosion of frosting and track jettisoned all three cars forward. Her car was now out in front. Candlehead's car landed without any issues and sped off almost immediately.

Changelina's car landed and whirled around a few times before she had a chance to hit the gas. However, she was fine. Vanellope's car landed and crashed into the wall, causing her to end up in last place after regenerating. Changelina failed to notice this and tried her best to glitch ahead, but Candlehead had a head start and was too far to catch up to now.

"Ha! I'm gonna win, you little freak!" Candlehead hollered back.

That did it. Whatever passivity Changelina had been feeling throughout the race had vanished in an instant. She got angry, _really_ angry, and wanted nothing more than to inflict as much pain to the racer up ahead as possible. But since pain was not possible on the track, something else would have to do.

She focused her anger into something menacing, something that she hoped would stop that mean racer in her tracks. Her car slowly started to disappear.

"Whoa…" Suddenly, she was forced to stand and balance on what she could only describe as a board of some sort. The board was hovering and moving forward at a breakneck speed. She looked down and noticed the sergeant's costume from before; she knew exactly what to do with it. She slowly brought her hand behind her back and found the instrument of Candlehead's destruction, a gun.

"Hey, freak!" Changelina called, in a voice not of her own. She should have felt remorse for saying that, but she felt good, she felt _really_ good.

Candlehead turned her head around, confused. "Huh? Geez!" Changelina had her gun aimed and ready to fire. Candlehead looked back and noticed the finish line was coming up.

"I'm a freak, huh? Well, looks like it's time for my freakish gun to teach those lips of yours some manners!"

Candlehead's eyes grew wide as dinner plates, time ceasing to exist. The girl's gun unfolded and was ready to fire. She aimed precisely and the racer in front never had a chance. Green energy burst from the weapon and completely shot her car in two, causing it to halt just before the finish line.

The girl's hover board went through the split car and crossed the finish line. Her car changed back to her sour-coated one as she stopped, her costume morphing to the brown dress once more.

All rage left the girl in an instant. She could hardly believe those words had left her mouth or that she had acted so violently. Vanellope was hearing none of her silent protests, however, and drove up along with the other racers and began to cheer.

"You did it! I told you that you're awesome and you could win, Changelina!" She hugged the racer, but Changelina was busy dealing with her emotions, too strained to respond.

"Wait, so you knew who this was?" Candlehead questioned while getting out of her car.

Vanellope frowned when she realized her mistake, though she figured it wasn't anything terrible. "Well yeah, it's a long story… but, I promised her I'd help her win a race and here we are!" She gestured to the racing board. The other racers looked up, astonished to find that Changelina or "The Mystery Racer" was nowhere to be found.

"Wait, what?!" Vanellope exclaimed. The board showed the first nine racers that would be on the roster for when the arcade opened. Vanellope was part of it, having caught up to eighth place at the last minute, but her friend was not.

"I don't…" Vanellope turned to face the girl and found tears welling up in her eyes. They were not for the reason she assumed.

The other races looked at her in amazement, some in anger, and others in confusion. Changelina ran past them, tears rolling down her cheeks. Vanellope couldn't glitch fast enough and, before she knew what was happening, the girl was out of sight.

"Vanellope, what-" Taffyta was cut off as Vanellope raised her hand just over her face and shook her head grimly.

"Don't ask. I need to go find her. You all just…" All of her racers had stopped talking and were actually listening for a change. She would have loved to relish this rare moment, but it had to be cut short. "Just enjoy the rest of your day."

Changelina had found a secluded spot on the very race track that they had just finished. She figured no one would come to search for her back in the same spot, and she was right. Her crying ceased for a while and she felt content to simply listen to the digital wind blowing past her.

She was sitting just where she had made her first change in the race. It wasn't something mean like with Calhoun's outfit, no, but it did make her feel off. The first few times she changed, the girl played her feelings off as pure adrenaline. Doing exactly what she was meant to be doing felt like pure euphoria washing over her body. Through each change and each pixel switching around to form a clone of another character, she would tingle and feel amazing.

But, she now knew that something had to be wrong with her. "Why was I so angry?" Switching into Calhoun's outfit brought forth new feelings, feelings she would rather keep inside or not feel at all. She felt hatred for the other racer, but she wasn't sure if it was Calhoun's hatred or her own. Either way, she concluded that those feelings were wrong.

She had won the race, yes, but somehow the roster thing had refused to work for her. That would not have bothered her as much if Vanellope had not been there watching it all happen. The tears were not just from her lapse in judgment; they were there because she had disappointed her friend. Even if she did win, the roster refused to acknowledge it. But that wasn't what bothered her.

"There you are!" Vanellope exclaimed and ran up to examine her. "Are you okay?"

A meek nod was all she got in response, the girl's hands resting on her chin.

"Uh, good. Look, you were awesome-"

"But, I didn't win," Changelina whined.

"Yes you did! The roster just—okay, I'm not sure why it didn't work, but you won in my book!" Vanellope mustered up as much enthusiasm as she could.

It worked: Changelina was smiling all of a sudden. "Really?!"

"Yep! I mean, wow, turning into Mini-Calhoun on the track and using her gun! That was brilliant!" Upon hearing this, however, the girl's face fell. That was enough for Vanellope to understand that something was the matter. "What's wrong?"

"I felt so angry at her… I wanted to hurt her…Why?" Changelina's eyes teared up slightly. She stared into Vanellope's, hoping for any answer. Vanellope had to resist the urge to sigh. She was doing her best to turn Changelina into a real friend, into an equal or even more. Vanellope had to keep reminding herself that Changelina was new and she was certainly not Ralph, even if she could mimic him.

"Well," Vanellope began in a slow, calm, and collective manner, "if I had to guess, it just has something to do with _who_ you change into. Maybe you can learn to control those emotions. It can't be impossible!" Vanellope exclaimed, but Changelina wasn't buying it. "Look, I'm still your friend and no one was hurt, so, buck up!"

Changelina scratched her head a few times. Vanellope was being sincere and she did say that they were still friends, so why worry? She figured that, for now, there was no reason to worry, and finally smiled.

"There we go! How about we head to Tappers or something?"

Changelina smiled and skipped off ahead, her dress shifting to Vanellope's clothes along the way.

Ralph had been laying in his "house" alone for the remainder of the day. _House_ was a strong word he decided, being so small for his physique, but it was better than living in the dump like he had for thirty years. During his free time, he had become more and more detached from the other characters, even from Vanellope.

Thoughts continued to linger to the outside world; not on the world itself, but what it meant for their worlds. He knew what happened to all arcade games eventually, and that there were only had two options. You could either go down with the ship and hoped to be plugged back in somewhere else and move on. Or, you could abandon ship entirely and wait for another character to invite you to be part of their game.

What was he to do on that faithful day when the arcade went out of business? All characters knew it was inevitable. From the business they were getting, that day was a long ways off. Still, that did not stop him from thinking about what would happen to all of his friends, to what he called his family, to Vanellope, and, finally, to him when that finally happened.

"Why can't I just… Argggg!" He resisted the urge to pound his wall into oblivion, even though he really, really wanted to at that very moment. His sentence was the same thing he kept trying to repeat. He kept trying to convince himself that he could get over this issue, but it was still bothering him.

He opened the door to his house and walked outside, slowly as to not be noticed by his neighbors. He looked out the screen of his arcade and sighed.

"Back again, huh?"

Ralph whipped around to find Felix staring at him in concern.

"Uh… yeah." Ralph figured he had no chance of lying at this point.

Felix took a seat on the fake road in front of their apartment and motioned for Ralph to do the same. Felix was nearly thrust up into the air as his six-hundred-pound friend "took a seat" beside him, but thought nothing of it. "So, what's on your mind?"

"I don't know," Ralph admitted. In truth, many things were on his mind, but he had no clue where to start.

"Got anywhere you could start?"

Ralph looked down at him and shook his head. "It's too messed up, up _there_, you know?" Ralph scratched his head while Felix laughed a bit.

"Well… what's the main issue in the old noggin?"

"…Everything," Ralph said after a long silence. "I mean what happens, Felix? What happens the day-"

"Why are you so fixated on this, Ralph?!"

Ralph stared at him. This was one of those rare moments where the small handyman would lose it.

"Because, when it happens, I just keep wondering…is there anything we can do to stop it?"

Felix considered his words for a while before miserable shaking his head. "No, probably not. It will happen someday and, when it does, hopefully we will have lived a long, happy life. I mean… aren't you happy, Ralph?"

"'Course I'm happy! I have the best friends in the world! I just can't stop thinking about it! I know I shouldn't, but…"

"Alright, I'll admit that, occasionally, I think about it too…"

Ralph looked down at him and found the same strange, longing look he had given to the screen. Felix quickly shook it off.

"Well, what do you think about?" Ralph asked.

"Calhoun claims that there is a way out of the arcade if it ever happened."

"…What?" Ralph's mind went blank.

"Yeah, think about it. The power grid is plugged into the wall, and where does the wall lead?"

Ralph pondered his words for a while before realization struck. "That's brilliant!" he exclaimed.

"It's not that simple-"

"But, at least we'd have a chance, right?!" Ralph inquired excitedly.

Felix practically grinned, happy that his friend was happy for once. "Yes, we would have more of a chance than if we just waited, yes."

"Well, that helps, buddy! It helps a lot!"

"I'm glad, Ralph. So, you think you can move on now?"

"Yeah, I think so. So, Calhoun has a plan for when this might happen someday? For all of us?"

"She said as many as she can, but she definitely means you, me, and Vanellope at least."

"Cool, cool," Ralph replied. An awkward silence soon overcame them. Ralph, disliking these moments, broke out with another question. "What's past _that_ barrier? What would we find exactly?"

Felix shook his head grimly. "That's why I said it wasn't that simple. It could be anything, really. We could find another arcade or a game console or something else. But, Ralph?"

"Yeah, buddy?"

"That day is a long, long ways away. I promise you that."

"Well—you know what, you're right. How about we go to Tappers?"

"Well, _gadzooks_, you read my mind!"

"It's still kind of freaky how you do that, Changelina," Vanellope declared, watching her friend chug down six glasses of chocolate milk while wearing Ralph's uniform. The girl burped and shifted back to her brown dress. Vanellope looked on with wide eyes.

"What did I do?" Changelina asked.

"Nothing. Oh, nothing." Vanellope sighed, suppressing a small giggle.

"Hey, who's that?" Changelina pointed to another character and Vanellope turned around to find Mario (of all people) mingling at the bar.

"That's Mario. Real popular for the most part."

Changelina nodded and then looked at her hands and then back to Mario. "Do you think if I…" Changelina's words trailed off, her eyes meeting Mario's gaze.

Vanellope waved a hand in front of her. "Think what?"

Changelina ignored her friend and stood up from her stool. By instinct, she felt she had to touch Mario. She walked over and grabbed his arm without even thinking.

"Hey! What-a do you think you're—"

They both glitched slightly and, before Mario knew it, a clone of himself was standing there, only with a female build. She looked down and, obeying her instincts once more, jumped into the air again. She hit her head on the ceiling and glitched back into her old clothes.

"Ow," she groaned. She picked herself up, meeting Mario's glare.

"Serves a-you right!" Mario scoffed and left the game in a hurry. Changelina looked down and sighed.

"You good?" Vanellope asked, growing slightly tired of asking her.

"Yeah. I didn't want to make him mad, though."

"Well, maybe don't use that ability unless you ask them first?" Vanellope offered her infinite wisdom with just a hint of sarcasm that went over the girl's head.

"But, it-" Changelina shook her head and tried to think of the right way to explain why she did it. She scrunched her face, concentrating, but kept quiet.

"You know, if you do that enough, your face will stay that way." Vanellope giggled. The other girl was lost in thought. "Snap out of it!"

"What? Oh, sorry…"

"Right, so why'd you glitch on Mario over there?"

"It just felt right!" Changelina exclaimed.

Vanellope stared, her eyes wide, though she could tell that was all the girl had to explain."Alright, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then go for it."

Vanellope hadn't realized though that the girl would take her advice to heart, and was surprised when Changelina whipped around to look at the other customers trying to relax at Tappers. Everything happened so fast that not even Vanellope's glitching could keep up with or stop her friend.

In a flurry of motion, Changelina ran up to Sonic and glitched. Standing in front of him was a mint-green-colored hedgehog but, before he could even object, she ran up to another character. She spotted Mega Man and latched onto him. Soon, a pink-colored version of him (or a robot/girl mix) was standing there. Then, she spotted another and another.

"Changelina, slow down!" Vanellope warned. Her words fell on deaf ears. Soon, Changelina had copied Pac Man, Dig Dug, Q*bert, Tron, Ryu, Sir Arthur, The Yellow Wizard, and Dirk the Daring. She was going so fast that her brain barely had any time to register what and who she was changing into.

"Changelina…" Vanellope's breath caught in her throat when she saw the state her friend was in.

"Make it stop!" Changelina practically screamed.

Changelina suddenly froze, all eyes on her. Her body shuddered, and then she grabbed her head and groaned. Pain coursed through her code, and her entire body felt like she was on fire. Her breathing increased rapidly, but nothing would stop the pain until, finally, she screamed at the top of her lungs. She then collapsed on the floor, spasming, her code glitching all over until her vision blurred. And, then, darkness.

Changelina awoke to find herself drenched in sweat and shaking slightly. She looked around and found the room she was in was dark, drapes covering the windows. She looked down and saw she had been tucked under the covers of a very lavish-looking bed.

Her right hand massaged her scalp. She felt fried and very foggy. She let out one small yawn and realized she did not have the strength to even get up. She slumped back into the bed, waiting for something to happen.

She tried to remember what happened, but anything before the pain was a blur. She took a deep breath, holding it in when she heard voices coming from the door outside.

"….Died…glitching …..code…." The voices were muffled and stopped just as soon as they came. She then let her breath out and sighed.

The door slowly creaked open as light washed over the room. The occupant squinted their eyes to find Changelina and then sighed in relief.

"You're awake!" Vanellope came running up and hugged her gently.

"What happened?" Changelina's voice sounded groggy.

"…You don't remember?" Vanellope's question only got a shake of her head in response. "Well…I guess that makes sense. We were at Tappers, and you went just a _wee_ bit crazy with that ability of yours and started copying everyone in sight. Then, your code got overloaded from how fast you were going. I had to glitch you back to the kingdom before-" Vanellope stopped herself and hoped the girl understood.

"Before what?"

Vanellope swallowed a lump in her throat. "Changelina, you died! You reset, of course!" she quickly added. "But, you could have die-died out there and…" Changelina was amazed to find her friend wiping away a few tears.

Changelina looked down at her hands in disgust. Had she actually almost died for real? She didn't know Vanellope that well yet, but she knew her friend had no reason to lie.

"Please don't cry…"

Vanellope whipped her head to meet Changelina's gaze, and then frowned and narrowed her eyes. "Just promise me you won't do your _thing_ outside our game? Promise me!" The president's voice practically hysterical.

"I promise." Before she knew it, Vanellope was hugging her again, only not holding back this time. Changelina began, "But, why are you-"

"Crying?" Vanellope sniffed and wiped her tears away. "It's a long story, Changelina. I guess it also has to do with almost losing you…idiot." Her weak attempt at humor did nothing to lift her spirits.

"And something else?" Changelina did not assume she was stupid. She knew she was new and that Vanellope _did not_ cry unless something was really bothering her. At least, that's how she assumed how her friend worked.

Vanellope sighed and nodded, climbing onto the other side of the bed while using the same pillow as her friend.

"I didn't used to be the president or princess or whatever. Someone named Turbo had lost his game and decided he wanted to rule this one. So, he snuck into the game's code vault and rewired everything. He locked up everyone's memories, even mine, and made me think I was a worthless glitch. If it wasn't for Ralph and my friends, I wouldn't be here in my nice room."

Changelina looked around, just now realizing she was in Vanellope's bed of all places. "But anyway, the point is, I have friends now, but most of them are outside my game. Not that the other racers are bad, but… I'd like our friendship to last; I don't want to lose you. I just-" She bit her lip and made sure that no one was listening but Changelina, who was hanging on her every word. "I don't want to be alone again."

Changelina blinked and resisted the urge to hug her friend or say anything at all. Was this the same spunky girl that she had been getting to know?

"I won't leave you alone," Changelina replied quietly, and then moved her hand and laid it over Vanellope's. The spunky girl leapt over, giving her one last hug before switching right back into character.

"I know you won't! Now, get out of bed, _switcheroo_." Vanellope chuckled and carefully helped her friend to her feet. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah…" She nodded skeptically. "What about you?"

Vanellope rolled her eyes and lied slightly. "Yep! Now, let's get going before _barf brain_ has a heart attack."

"Who?"

"Ralph."


	5. Chapter Four What Makes You Tick

**Chapter Four: What Makes You Tick**

Changelina stood still as Felix, Ralph, and Calhoun examined her. Vanellope stood off to the side, leaning against a wall. Part of the way through her examination-which consisted of being poked a few times-she shifted into Princess Vanellope's dress and gave a bashful smile.

"Alright kid, run us by exactly what you did at Tappers," Ralph exclaimed, breaking the long silence.

"I-" She paused and glitched into Vanellope's regular form. "That plumbing guy was there, Mario, and I just had to touch him. I don't know why, but it felt great!" She grinned and ignored the odd looks from the adult characters. She then glitched into Candlehead. "Then I just went crazy and suddenly it was all too much and I just had to take their costumes. It felt so good!" She jumped in the air and glitched back to her normal self. "And then the pain started."

Calhoun examined her head before groaning. "It seems the switching girl here can't show emotions without switching. It's like a jumbled mess of characters I've only seen from outside the arcade," she finished smugly.

"Outside the arcade, honey bun?" Felix questioned.

"Before my game was plugged into Litwak's Arcade here, it had to briefly be plugged into another one. I guess I never shared that, huh? Some weirdo characters were there, but the girl here is showing weird code symptoms."

Ralph raised an eyebrow. "Like what exactly? I still don't get how she works."

"Do I need to spell it for ya?" she snapped, but calmed once more. "Changelina here can't properly vent her emotions without switching into character."

"But I've seen her display emotions around me without switching!" Vanellope countered.

"Kid, I said _properly_ vent them. Doesn't mean she can't feel emotion or anything, just that up here-" she pointed to the girl's brain—"it's just a bit different from us."

"So she can't use any emotions when outside our game?" Vanellope asked the sergeant.

"No, she can. What happened with her code was just an overload. She has to be careful with how fast she talks and how many characters she touches with that ability of hers."

"Oh."

Changelina had remained quiet the entire time and took in all the information to process. She didn't feel different from the other characters, but how would she tell? Whenever she talked, she felt normal, but if she felt excited or angry or shy or sad, she would feel her ability bubbling up inside and would be forced to change. Once the change was done, she would be running on pure code adrenaline and would display whatever emotion she was supposed to be feeling full force. She just hoped any of that made sense.

"Um-" She paused and all eyes turned to her. "Whenever I feel angry I just turn into you." She pointed to Calhoun. "And then I feel that I_ have_ to be angry…"

"Hmm, well why do you _have_ to be angry?"

"It just feels good," she admitted shamefully.

Calhoun was at a loss for words and simply shook her head before turning to her husband. He tilted his head to the side before responding. "Well, Sweetie, maybe next time you feel overly emotional you can just calm down? That way you won't hurt your code!"

"But how?"

"Ahh that's easy!" Vanellope countered. "This one time, I couldn't stop getting mad at Ralph over here over this one name he kept calling me… And I ended up hitting him a few times before old Felix over here called me aside and helped me figure out how to relax before I did something that stupid again."

"Yeah, hitting a six-hundred-pound friend does seem pretty stupid, huh?" Ralph replied, while Vanellope just rolled her eyes and continued speaking.

"Anyway, you just hold your breath and count to ten like this!" She turned red for a bit before letting out her oxygen reserve. "And then you should be calm! So next time you get super mad and change, just do that!"

"Okay, that makes sense I guess," Changelina muttered.

"And don't go changing into every Tom, Dick, and Harry character you meet without knowing what they can do and who they are!" Calhoun announced, keeping her attention focused on Changelina. "We don't know exactly how that ability of yours works, but if I had to guess it _does_ have a limit and you _can_ hurt yourself. I know you can't help your emotions and if you change then fine, you change. Just remember what Vanellope said and you should be fine."

She nodded and smiled slightly but kept quiet. This time when the urge to switch into the Princess Vanellope dress costume surfaced, she could feel it. It felt good and it was urging her body along to just succumb and let it happen, but this time, she resisted. Her body tensed and glitched slightly but she remained the same. Her dress was still brown.

"That was weird," Vanellope said.

"Well, I felt it, and I kind of stopped myself from changing just now."

"Good! See, you can control it!"

"Yeah… well, it's been fun here, but we all need to head back to our own games before the arcade opens." Ralph said.

"Oh! C'mon girl, we gotta get moving!" Before Changelina could object she was playfully shoved back towards the racetrack from the castle. She watched Ralph and the gang leave and then instantly frowned.

"I'm not on the roster, Vanellope."

"I know, I know! But wouldn't it be more fun to watch us race?" She thought about it and then nodded. It certainly sounded a bit more fun than just exploring on her own.

The candy crowd was cheering while Changelina was standing off to the sidelines, silently cheering her friend on. A few of the racers shot nervous glances at Changelina, who ignored them. She did, however, feel out of place without a racing outfit.

The arcade had just opened and the oddest thing happened in front of Changelina. Part of her pre-programmed code had been expecting a giant window to come flying down. It was odd. A player that they could all see as a small girl had just entered her quarter and was picking her avatar. As she steered the wheel slowly, each avatar was quickly levitated into the air from her car and struck a pose. Each time Vanellope was glanced over, her pose seemed automatic. She would look shy and then burst in surprise when the wheel glanced over to her and then quickly placed back into her car. It almost looked silly, but Changelina just watched in awe.

"Hey, what's this?" the girl asked while glancing at the screen. "New upgrade, press the brake pedal to see…" She did and, suddenly, the window switched over and started to hover above Changelina. All the racers shared nervous glances but remained quiet.

Changelina felt what was happening was natural and she, like Vanellope, struck a shy pose.

"Why does she look so plain?" the girl muttered. More words appeared on the screen. "Changing Avatar. _The New Racer_ will change avatars upon activation in the race. Pick her clothes and accessories in order to make her look like you are in the race… huh."

The amount of clothes the girl had to pick from consisted of any costume that Changelina had accumulated from her time in Game Central Station and in Sugar Rush. "Cool! Oh my gosh, only twenty seconds! But which one do I want?" Each time the girl chose a costume, it would switch Changelina and her car. "Not compatible?" A few of the costumes would not work, to her confusion. Eventually, the girl choose Calhoun's and selected her race track. "This is gonna be sweet!"

_Mystery Racer Joined Race!_

Changelina and Calhoun's hover-board materialized along with the other racers. She was now in fifth place. She tried to share a glance with Vanellope, but her body would barely move with the player in control. All movements would be automatic until the end of the race.

As the race started, the girl talked to herself while trying to get a feel for the new upgrade. "She controls kind of weird… Oh, sweet, a power-up box!" But instead of a candied gun like the girl was expecting, a large question-mark box appeared in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Near the steering wheel, there were two physical buttons on the arcade cabinet. One was labeled "Fire," while the other was labeled "Power," as usual. The girl had a choice: she could fire her gun and ignore the question mark while steering Changelina to aim her gun towards the right racer, or she could use the question mark power.

"Why not?" She pressed the button and code surged through Changelina until she morphed into Candlehead's car and costume. "WOW! And just in time, too!" The players all knew this was the part to swerve the car while riding uphill if you had chosen Candlehead as a racer. "C'mon! I can do this…"

And she did. Changelina's car swirled at the correct angle and speed and each cherry bomb went off, one after the other, causing several cars to crash and regenerate in last place. Changelina was now in second place.

First place was held by Vanellope, who was about to be passed up by the player. Just before they hit the finish line, Vanellope glitched and won. "Shoot!" the girl moaned. She left the game.

Suddenly, each character was teleported back to the starting line inside their cars, waiting to be played. The other racers drove off in a demo race as they were programmed, but Vanellope held back off screen and so did Changelina.

"What was that about?" Vanellope asked.

"I don't know, she just selected me and I was in the race…"

Vanellope pondered this, making a few "hmm," noises before shrugging. "Maybe that's why the board wouldn't let you win. Because a player can just choose you whenever."

"But isn't that not fair to you and the other racers?"

"A bit, but I learned a long time ago that anything the players do is out of our hands and we just have to accept that."

Changelina considered this before nodding slowly.

Throughout the day, Changelina got some amazing cheers from the players. Some choose not to race her out of sheer respect for their favorite racers, while others tried to argue that she was all of them and more. Unfortunately, the more the players used her ability, the more her emotions ran wild. The worst part was not being able to vent her feelings while someone else was in control of her body. When she wasn't chosen, she was still in the races. There, she tried her best to let out any anger or anxiety or feelings of recklessness, but it was never enough.

By the time the arcade was closed, Changelina felt like a nervous wreck. She had changed so many times that her emotions were running wild. Anger would switch to jealousy, then to excitement and shyness, and then right back to anger. It was all so forced; each button from the cabinet would force her to change. She hated it. She hated every last minute. The players took all the fun out of the game for her and her very existence. If her brain hadn't felt so fried, she would have started crying once the arcade closed. She was sitting down on the ground, panting, when Vanellope walked up.

"Uh, long day?" she asked.

"That was horrible!" Changelina exclaimed, instinctively switching to Candlehead's costume.

"Uh, what do you mean?"

"Every time I changed—every time!—I felt a new emotion!" she exclaimed. For the first time, she was angry while not in Calhoun's outfit. "It just kept happening over and over and I couldn't stop it…" Vanellope saw that she was on the verge of tears as she shifted back to her true form, her form of Changelina.

"I'm sorry," Vanellope replied, giving her a comforting hug. "I'm sure if we work together, we can get your emotions under control, alright?"

"But how?"

"I'm not sure yet. But you're a part of the game now. I'm sure there's a way to get those emotions to stop happening when you change."

Changelina just nodded, feeling too tired to respond.

"Hey, cheer up! Let's head back to the castle. I have a surprise for you…" Vanellope's voice tried to sound inviting, but Changelina felt too tired to do much of anything but follow her friend and nod again.

One thing Changelina noticed as they entered the castle was how vacant it looked. She assumed the other racers had homes to go to and did not live there. It made sense on some level, but the castle took up such a big part of their world, it just seemed like such a waste. This was something that Vanellope was hoping to fix; she would never admit it, but nights in the castle were lonely as could be.

She almost wished Ralph could be there for her, but Changelina would have to do.

"Alright, so, as you know, that is my room," Vanellope said, gesturing to two large double doors made out of red-painted wood. Changelina nodded. "And, now…" Vanellope trailed off and swung open the door right across from it. "And now, this is your room!"

The changing girl made a few slow steps and passed Vanellope, who was grinning from ear to ear. She looked around, but the only thing she spotted was the bed at first. She then shook her needs aside and gawked at the room before her. An assortment of random objects littered the walls. From power-ups to weapons, armor, and artifacts from other games that she had never heard of. Her bed was almost as lavishly designed as Vanellope's, though it was themed differently.

"I, uh, hope you like it. I wasn't exactly sure _what _you liked, but I talked to Ralph and my other friends and they agreed that your room should be as prismatic as your car. At least that's the word they used… you do like sour candy, right?"

Changelina nodded. Her bedding was designed with that very thing in mind. Sour-candied dots and other sour sprinkles lined the wood of the bed frame. The same sour-candied decorations were on her other pieces of furniture.

"Good! Ralph and the others collected a bunch of this stuff from other games. They said that you would feel more comfortable this way. Do you?"

Changelina still was lost for words and kept staring at everything. She felt so exhausted that she wanted to jump on the bed right then and there and just sleep, but she knew that would be rude to not answer her friend at least. She did like it; she liked her room a lot. The assortment of random objects spiked her curiosity and filled her with warm feelings more than anything. She gave a mental shrug on what to do next. Why would any other action be needed?

She lunged forward and hugged Vanellope in another code-crunching hug.

"I take that as a yes?"

She gave a slight nod and then dozed off to sleep in her arms. She didn't want to sleep right there, but ther first day "on the job" and her constant switching of costumes had made her very exhausted.

"Uh? Are you asleep?"

Vanellope groaned after realizing that she was. She awkwardly tried to shift the weight of her friend towards the bed, but she was too heavy, and she certainly did not want to drag her on the ground.

"Hey kid! Did she-huh?" Just then, Ralph had decided to come in unannounced at the worst possible time.

"Give me a hand, you big lug. She fell asleep."

"In your arms? Uh…"

She rolled her eyes. "Just, please, pick her up and tuck her in or something! She's heavy!"

"Alright… but I still don't understand how she-"

"She was thanking me for the room, so she gave me a hug and then, just…_this_!"

"That's weird," he replied while tucking Changelina into her new bed. "What made her so tired?"

"Yeah, we need to talk about that… also, thanks for helping out here."

"Don't mention it. After what you told me about not being able to win, I just felt she could use a pick-me-up or something."

"Right, about that…" Vanellope paused and watched her friend sleep for a moment. "She was able to race today. The players played her."

"…What? I thought you said the-"

"It didn't let her be part of one of the featured racers, but that didn't matter because apparently she's a new feature for the game. Players can pick one of the nine featured racers, or they can pick her."

"Huh. Well, that's a good thing, right?"

"Kind of. The players also get to use her special power on the track to switch her cars and powers around. She was a big hit. But afterwards, she told me that it was like torture. She said her emotions would change each time that she changed, which was quite a bit."

"How many times did the players switch her around today?"

"Hundreds of times, I think."

"And each time-"

"Yeah. Ralph, we need a way to get her emotions under control! That can't be fun at all! She's supposed to enjoy her time on the track and being played, not _hate_ it."

"Alright, alright! I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know anything about her ability or anything."

"You gotta have some idea! _I_ don't know what to do!"

"What about your racer friends? Can't they help? They are a part of _her_ game, after all."

"Uh…" She glanced back to Changelina as she unconsciously shifted in her bed. "I don't think they like her very much."

Ralph crossed his arms. "And why's that?"

"She kind of beat them in that race I helped her win. She beat them pretty good, especially Candlehead."

"Well, tough! That happens! It's a racing game. Changelina needs help. Now, I don't know what a bunch of screaming brats are going to do, but it's better than no plan at all. So, ask them for help."

Vanellope muttered something under her breath.

"What?"

She sighed. "I hate asking for help from them. It's demeaning!"

He smirked. "Tough, you're a princess-"

"President!"

"Whatever. You're in charge of this game and that means you need to look out for your citizens. Changelina needs help, and our only plan is to ask those races to help her. Sometimes helping others means doing something you don't want to do."

"I know, I know… stink brain," she replied, smirking. She would never admit it to his face or anyone else, even Changelina. But she did enjoy these moments with Ralph the most, the moments where he was fatherly to her and gave her advice.

"I never get tired of that. Anyway, I'll do my best to ask around Game Central Station to help her too. Someone has to know how to control her emotions. I mean, we've got dozens of arcades games at our arcade."

"Good point. Hey, Ralph?"

"Yeah?"

"Uh, remember when I asked you if you wanted to talk? Back at the bar?"

"What? Oh! Actually, kid, Felix kind of helped with that. We had a nice chat."

"Really? What about?"

"Well, uh… he said that Calhoun kind of has this emergency plan in case something ever happens to the arcade."

"Really? What?"

"Through the plug in the wall! It's risky, but it's better than waiting around for, well, you know."

"That would be awesome! Oh my gosh, what would we find out there? And-"

"Kid, this is just for if the arcade is shut down or something big. Not for exploring!"

"Oh right, alright fine." She exhaled and sighed. "I better go talk to the girls. Wish me luck!"

"You're gonna need it kid. I'll see ya later."

"Bye, barf breath!"

Ralph made his way back on the tram from Sugar Rush with Changelina on the brain. He literally had no clue where to start other than asking Calhoun again, but he had bothered her enough.

"Maybe Dr. Robotnik... well, it's Eggman, but I heard he likes to go by Robotnik more. Eh, worth a shot!"

Ralph smirked at his cleverness and made his way to _SegaSonic the Hedgehog_. He found the place and was immediately stopped by The Surge Protector.

"Hey, where have you been?!"

"That's my job to ask the questions, sir. Name?"

"Lara Croft."

"Name?"

"Wreck-It Ralph!"

"Where are you coming from?"

"Sugar Rush."

"And where are you heading to?"

Ralph groaned. "Where do you think?!"

"I'm just doing my job, sir. Do you have anything to declare?"

"This is pointless."

"I get that a lot. Proceed."

Ralph _proceeded_ into the tram and waited. He expected to find an island with odd and unique multi-colored levels, but, oddly enough, the tram exited to Robotnik's laboratory, where he found the Eggman hard at work.

"Excuse me?"

Robotnik whipped around in his rotating chair. "What? Wreck-It Ralph? What are you doing here? You're not going Turbo, are you?" Ralph had to admit he felt nervous when he saw Robotnik's angry-yet-excited smile. He knew he was a mad scientist, but this was a little much, Ralph thought.

"No, but I do need your help."

"Oh? And what does the great Ralph need from little old me?"

"…Little? You're practically half my weight," Ralph retorted.

He scowled. "Oh? Well, why don't you just get lost before-"

"No, wait! I'm sorry. I really do need your help."

"Well, spit it out already. I'm a busy man," Robotnik replied, scowling some more.

"Right. Uh, do you ever do experiments on code?"

"You're kidding, right? It's all I do! Ha! What? You think I make crazy robot experiments like my backstory says? Hardly!"

"You're not doing anything illegal, right?" Ralph questioned, growing more uneasy.

"Oh, please. Who do you think I am? Turbo? Besides, Sonic comes by here from time to time. I think he would have noticed if I was doing anything against the arcade rules."

"Right, sorry. Anyway, a new character was installed into Sugar Rush. You know, the racing game?"

"Go on…"

"She's pretty neat, but her special ability leaves her in a bad spot."

"Just what would that be? She's not some crazy, overpowered character, right?"

"No! Well…" Ralph pondered this for a moment before raising his large hand and bringing his index finger and thumb together. "Tiny… I guess you could call her overpowered, but its only because she can absorb other characters' costume and powers."

"Great _Naka_! Can I see her?! Oh this is so exciting, I've never studied a specimen-"

"She's not a lab experiment!"

"To me she is." He gave a playful grin, but Ralph was not having it. He crossed his long arms and glared down at Robotnik. "Well, do you want my help or not?"

"I do, but only if she is treated fairly."

"Yes, yes, of course. But what's the problem, anyway?"

"When she changes costumes, she gets emotionally involved. That's what Calhoun and Vanellope said. Each time she changes, she feels a new emotion and that's the problem. Players play her and just assumes she some toy, so they change her costume all day and-"

"She feels every single one? Interesting. And you want me to help her control these feelings?"

"Can you?"

"Well, I'm not exactly a touchy-feely evil scientist, but I'll do my best. She will have to be brought in though. Where is she now?"

"Sleeping. The whole day left her exhausted."

"Pity. Well then, either bring her in after closing or on the weekend." Robotnik then turned around dismissively and began to toy around with his massive computer.

"And you can help her, right?"

"Probably. I can't promise anything, though." Ralph noticed that he finished with a grin. He desperately wanted to spin the scientist around and smash his face in, but he knew that would be doing no favors for Changelina. So he decided to leave the game.

"Better go find Felix or something," he muttered, scanning his surroundings. It was late, but most of the game characters were asleep in their games.

He entered Tappers and found the gang only missing one at a table. Vanellope was back in her game, hopefully talking to the other racers.

"Hey gang," Ralph said.

"Hey Ralph. Did Changelina enjoy her surprise?" Felix asked.

"I'm not really sure. She kind of passed out from her first day of racing."

Felix and Calhoun raised their eyebrows. "I thought you said she wasn't part of the—"

"She wasn't, Felix, but apparently its part of the upgrade. Players can pick her or the other nine racers for the day."

"Really? Well, what do you know honey, we didn't need to give her that surprise after all…" Felix's voice trailed off when he realized that his wife was practically glaring down at him. She was, after all, twice his height.

She scoffed but kept her comments to herself. Ralph then took a seat and ordered a drink. "But, there is still a big problem with her, guys."

"What now?" Calhoun demanded.

"She said each time a player uses her ability to change on the track, she feels a new emotion each and every time."

"So? Didn't seem to bother her when she was going glitch crazy in Tappers the other night." Calhoun's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Yeah, but I think that was different. Frankly, I don't know what that was or what happened there, but Vanellope said each time she changed on the race track it felt horrible. Like her not being in control of her body made those emotions happen instead-" Ralph spoke, but was interrupted.

"Instead of her feeling those emotions first, and_ then_ changing? What a mess," Calhoun replied while chugging down her root beer.

"Yeah, exactly. I talked to Dr. Robotnik and he claims he can help her after an examination."

"Heh, crazy scientist will do anything to examine new types of code," Calhoun muttered under her breath.

"I don't like it, but it's all we got. I wouldn't want to do my job in our game if I actually felt angry each time I destroyed the building. What's the fun in that?"

Felix, who had remained quiet this whole time, decided to speak up. "Well, how many different costumes does she have? Do they all work on the track?"

Ralph raised an eyebrow. "You know, I'm not sure, but if its more than two, then I would imagine that it must be exhausting and annoying to say the least. Just going from angry to happy to _bratty_? Then smug? At least that's what I noticed about her so far," he admitted, with just a slight hint of embarrassment.

"Sound like a certain wrecker is reconsidering our little daddy plan to Vanellope and this Changelina," Calhoun said seductively.

"I told you guys before that even thinking about that is crazy! They are just friends from a racing game that I like to help out! End of story."

Felix smirked and took a swig of his untouched root beer. "I don't know, Ralph. Vanellope tends to look up to you the most. None of those kids in Sugar Rush actually have an authority figure to look up to and they are pretty much the only game in the arcade with programmed children."

Ralph looked at the two before narrowing his eyes. "They are just friends, period."

"Sure they are," Calhoun mocked.

Ralph clenched his fists tight and then slammed his glass down. It shattered into a million pieces. No one in the bar noticed. Calhoun and Felix just giggled a bit as Tapper came up and spit out another root beer for him.

"Where do those extra glasses come from, anyway?" Felix asked Tapper.

"The game generates them," he replied, shrugging.

"Ralph, you just threw a hissy fit when we told you that you were the closest thing that Vanellope and those kids have to a father. If that were a love interest, you would have sold yourself out, wrecking boy." Calhoun said.

"Look you two, just find a way to help Changelina, got it?"

Felix gave a shy smile in response and spoke up. "You used your free time to ask your friends to set up her room. You used more of your free time to ask Dr. Robotnik for help and I don't know anyone who would talk to him unless they really needed to. No offense to him, of course. And you're stressing about this just as much as Vanellope," Felix stated in the same seductive tone, only softer.

Ralph stared at both of them for a long while before a quiet realization dawned in his head. His eyes went wide but his friends simply shrugged and chugged on their glasses.

Ralph left much later than the other two, trying to sort his thoughts out. Eventually, he found himself back at his house, lying on his bed.

"Father, eh? I swear, those two are too lovey-dovey," Ralph muttered. He soon went to bed. Just before his eyes drooped closed, he humored his thoughts and pretended he was their father, surprised to find himself smiling.


	6. Chapter Five Making Friends

**Chapter Five: Making Friends**

_Okay, just relax and try and avoid Taffyta and her little gang… I could throw them in the fungeon though for refusing to help…_The thought brought a small smile to her lips before she shook it aside. _No, I'm not a tyrant, as much as I WOULD love that…_

Vanellope left the confines of the castle and was now walking in the complete opposite direction of all the tracks. Behind the castle lay a small candy-themed town where all the racers actually lived. She cringed at the horrid memories of getting kicked out of this part of the game on oh so many occasions before they had stopped Turbo. Those memories were one of the reasons why she avoided this part of her kingdom.

_They're just memories! Just put them aside and focus!_

She shook her head a few times before sighing as she decided to take a slower pace towards the town. She knew the layout very well and where most of the racers lived, with the exception of a few whom she rarely talked to. It was those racers in particular she was hoping could help. The less-popular ones tended to be nicer, she thought.

Still, she knew that Changelina had gained no favors with the few stunts she pulled. Candlehead probably hated her, along with Taffyta and a few others.

As her walking became slower, the president paused. It was almost a soul-shattering moment-not devastating, but close. In the few months after her retake of her kingdom, she had been busy. Busy getting the hang of things and busy with her friends from outside the arcade. Her subjects did not hate her, but she just now realized that they also were not _really_ her friends.

Friends had your back. Friends joked around with you. Friends hung out with you after hours. And ,most importantly, friends knew you deep down. With Ralph, it was obvious: the two knew each other inside and out. The closest thing she could call Ralph was her best friend overall.

Felix was a great pal who, despite his lack of knowledge regarding rude comebacks, would still try and occasionally get the better of her other friends.

Calhoun was rough but real fun to hang out with. She was also protective when she needed to be.

Changelina was just odd, and she couldn't quite pinpoint her ways in a conversation (or with anything else, for that matter). Still, she was a friend.

But the other racers were not her friends. Her subjects, sure, but not friends. And that moment was what caused the president to stop in her tracks and stare at the ground.

"I barely even know them! Sure, I know which ones complain the most and what about… but…Oh man, this stinks!"

Her plan relied on gaining help from the other racers, but why would they ever want to help her if they weren't even her friends?

"Great, just great…"

She sulked on the pathway, halfway to town. Thoughts raced in her head. She debated on actually ordering them to help, but that would be something that King Candy would try, something that Turbo would try. Not her. She then considered another plan, but it was much slower.

"Maybe I can just try one for now. Someone has to have some idea on how to help!"

It took her ten minutes to find the edge of the village in question. There were dozens of odd candy-designed homes, but the only one she had interest in belonged to…

"Citrusella Flugpucke," Vanellope muttered. This particular racer was considered a recolor of a more famous racer, a reverse of her colors. Her house was particularly plain when compared to the others. It was two stories high with blue, velvet and purple-colored candies lining the outside walls and door.

_Just walk up there and knock. She was always nice during King Candy's reign. Well…nice enough. _In fact, Vanellope choose her because, during all the torture of living alone, she never once shoved her in the mud or called her a Glitch.

The president swallowed a knot in her throat and walked up to the door, letting loose a few firm knocks. The door opened swiftly before the president could get any more lingering thoughts of doubt.

Citrusella's mind blanked for a moment before speaking. "Uh, President Vanellope?"

"Uh, hey, and just Vanellope is fine."

The other girl nodded and waited for her to continue. Vanellope rubbed the back of her head for comfort, but it did nothing to ease her nervousness.

"Listen, do you want to hang out or something?" Vanellope asked, her voice going a few pinches higher than she would have liked.

"Hey, are you okay?" She asked in response.

"Uh…"

"'Cause you're sweating, for one. You're asking me to hang out and we never talk, two. And, you look really stressed."

Vanellope's mind narrowed onto one thought. _Crud. Now what?! Oh, screw it!_

Vanellope breathed in deep. "Okay, look. It's true that I usually ignore you girls, er guys, er, racers! And I usually just hang out with Ralph and my other friends." Citrusella nodded and motioned for her to continue. "I would like to start making some friends in my game, but-" She bit her lip.

"But what?"

"I kind of need help for Changelina…"

"Who? Is she that new racer? I haven't been on the track in a while…"

Vanellope noticed that she looked quite bashful, but kept that to herself. "Yes, she was part of the upgrade and she really needs some help."

The blueberry girl crossed her arms. "It didn't sound like she needed help racing, not to sound jealous or anything. It kind of sounds like, at least from what the other racers were gossiping about, that she has it made."

"Maybe a bit. But she's having a horrible time while she races when the players control her. I barely got her home today before she fell asleep on top of me. I don't know if you girls would know anything about her problems, but more friends would help regardless. So, will you be my friend and hers, maybe?"

The girl studied the president and was surprised to find her not only out of character but sounding extremely desperate as well. She had nothing to lose by gaining a friend, especially one that was the president of the game.

She shrugged and smiled. "Sure, why not?"

"Awesome!" Vanellope jumped in the air and cheered.

"But, what's wrong with this…Changelina, is it?"

"Oh, right. Well, it has to do with her ability. See, she can change into any character from any game just by touching them."

"I fail to see how that is a bad thing."

"It is, because her emotions control it and sometimes the other way around. She can only feel emotions by switching characters to someone who feels that emotion the most? I think that's how it works… but on the track, when a player controls her and they tell her to change, she instantly feels that emotion afterwards. She was on the track today and felt dozens of emotions switch instantly over and over and it exhausted her. That can't be fun, Citrusella. That can't be fun at all! Our jobs are supposed to be fun and amazing, not torture!"

"Hmm, that sounds pretty rough. How long as she been part of the game anyway?"

"Few days?"

"Geez, she's like a newborn or something and has to go through that? No _wonder _you're so stressed…"

"So can you help? Got any ideas or something?"

"Uh, maybe? I'm sorry Vanellope, but I've never heard of this before." Vanellope slumped down at hearing this. "Maybe she can try and learn to not feel emotion when she changes?"

"I think it's part of her code though."

"'Well, then maybe she can try and feel the emotion before she changes on the track, instead of the other way around?"

"That could work, but how do we do that?" Vanellope asked.

The girl noticed that she was hanging on her every word, desperate to help her friend. "Where is she, anyway? I didn't see any new homes installed with the upgrade or anything."

"She's living in the castle now, but she's asleep."

"Oh, I see. I could help her better if she was awake and I could talk to her. Until then though, I'm kind of in the dark here."

"Oh, okay," Vanellope replied, sighing and slowly walking away.

"…Did you still want to hang out?"

Vanellope turned around and mentally smacked herself for forgetting. Of course she would want to hang out! This was not the right way to start a friendship by just walking away.

"S-sure!"

"Cool, it's late but I'm sure we can do something!"

"Well, what do you usually do after hours?" Vanellope questioned while eyeing the inside of her house, which she found was disturbingly plain-looking. Normally, racers had all sorts of random awards and trophies inside.

The girl shrugged. "Sometimes, I'll tweak up my car, or hang if there's a party. But usually, I'll just turn in early for the days where I do earn the right to be on the roster… otherwise, I just chill in our game during the day."

"You, uh, never leave the game?"

"No, not really. Do _you_?"

"Plenty of times. Want to come with? I'm sure we can find something to do!"

"Okay, let's go!"

"Great!" Vanellope cheered and grabbed Citrusella without warning, beginning to glitch her back towards the exit of the game. When she was finished, she looked over with a smug smile that quickly turned into a frown. Citrusella was stumbling and looked unsteady.

"Uh," Vanellope rubbed the back of her head nervously, "first time using glitch travel?"

"Yeah… please don't do that again."

"Sorry. Let's go!"

The trip on the tram was uncomfortably awkward for Vanellope, but not for Citrusella. The blueberry-themed girl was taking in the sights on the tram and was pleased when she arrived at Game Central Station.

"First time here?" Vanellope asked, incredulous.

"Uh huh. It's pretty impressive!"

"So," Vanellope began while walking in front of her to block her new view, "we can go to Tappers for root beers or something, or check out some other games. What do you want to do?"

"Um…" The girl looked down for a moment as her expression turned from nervousness to embarrassment.

From hanging out with Changelina, Vanellope was not lost to that look. "Right, first time… we could just explore some random games. How about _SegaSonic_? It's kind of a weird Japanese game."

"Sure!" she cheered, happy that the pressure was off her to choose.

Citrusella and Vanellope were stopped by the Surge Protector just in front of the door.

"Names?" he asked.

"Uh, Citrusella and Vanellope," Citrusella replied.

"What game are you coming from?"

"Hey, how come you always ask that, but you always know?" Vanellope asked, dodging the question.

"It's part of my job to ensure that you are who you say you are."

"Oh… Sugar Rush."

"And where are you both heading?" he asked in the same monotone voice.

Vanellope frowned and said nothing, Citrusella gave a confused look. "…Really? We're clearly heading into that game so-"

"Thank you, anything else to declare?"

"You confuse me," Citrusella offered.

"That one's new. Good night." He then dematerialized into pixels and code and left the hallway that led into the game silent.

The blue girl turned to Vanellope, who just groaned.

"Let's just head inside, shall we?" Vanellope said.

"Good call…"

Inside, the two found the exact same laboratory that Ralph had found himself in. No one was there, however. Beakers lined tables, charts were scattered everywhere, and one massive computer was stationed in the corner.

"What is this place?" Citrusella asked.

"If I had to guess, Dr. Robotniks lab."

"Ahh, I think I've heard of him. He's crazy, right?"

"Wrong!" The two girls shrieked and whipped around to find the scientist himself standing there. "Oh man, the look on your faces! Ah...now, what are you two doing here?"

"We were just kind of exploring your game," Vanellope admitted.

"Hmm… are you two by any chance from _Sugar Rush_?"

"Yes?" Citrusella half-said and half-asked. Vanellope rolled her eyes and playfully smacked the girl. "What was that for?"

"You don't tell the evil villain of a game who you are!"

"Oh…"

"Oh please, I may be crazy, but I'm hardly evil."

Vanellope deadpanned, "But, you just said-"

"Yep. Now, you are the president of the game, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Can you bring me this...Changelina, is it? Ralph informed me of her unique situation." Robotnik then took both of his hands and brought them together in a gesture that he hoped made him seem more innocent.

"He did, huh? Well, she's asleep right now. Kind of out of it completely and we still have part of the week left for the arcade."

He scowled. "So, I have to wait at least three full days before I begin my experiments?! Drat!"

"You are _not_ going to touch her!"

"I was not going to harm her, hardly! But, in order to find out how to better help keep her emotions under control, I need to examine her and her code."

Vanellope backed up a bit, her expression changing from a scowl to curiosity. "You can help her?"

"I can, but I need to-"

"Yeah , yeah, yeah, I get it. Maybe you can come into our game and look at her code?"

"She needs to be awake for my tests and-"

Vanellope interrupted him again. "I meant look at her code box. Will that help?"

"…It would help a little. I suppose it's better than nothing, but when should I stop by?"

"Tomorrow, after the arcade closes. You might also be able to do your tests on her, but I can't guarantee that she'll be awake if her day goes anything like it did earlier," Vanellope explained.

"Excellent, I'll see you then!" Robotnik then turned back to the computer and disregarded their presence.

The two girls shared a look.

"C'mon, we can go to Tappers or something. I have a feeling this game isn't too much fun." Vanellope waved her hand back towards the exit and the other girl nodded.

Outside, Citrusella slowed them down. Vanellope raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, are you sure trusting that guy with this friend of yours is a good idea?"

"Uh, not really at all… but if Ralph is there during the experiments, then nothing bad will happen. I just hope he can help."

"How big _is_ Ralph, anyway?"

"Haven't seen a game character yet that's larger."

"Cool."

They sped up and entered the bar to find it mostly deserted. Tapper walked up. "Hey girls, awfully late. You just missed Ralph and the gang, Vanellope."

"Shoot! Well, I'm out with Citrusella here, so no big deal."

"'Kay. Root beer?"

"Sure!" the blue girl cheered.

They talked through the night, but not about anything terribly interesting. Vanellope did enjoy herself but was having difficulty figuring out if her new friend had as well. She figured a friendship takes time anyway, and planned to spend more time with her overall.

The next day held the exact same experience for Changelina, only this time she knew what to expect. It was grueling and it made the changing girl hate her new life. She did not fully know what to expect when it came to being controlled by other players, but she certainly did not expect an emotional nightmare.

When the arcade had closed for the day, she felt nothing. She wanted to feel bitter or angry or upset, but at that point she was through feeling anything. She lumped down in her new bed and slept like a baby.

Citrusella was there in her room, along with Vanellope.

"Well, I guess you can't be friends yet, heh," Vanellope commented.

"You weren't kidding. Out like a light."

"Yeah. We better go meet Robotnik."

They both nodded and left the changing girl be. After closing her door, they turned around and yelped in surprise.

"Is she asleep?" the deep, brooding voice of Dr. Robotnik asked.

"Yes," Vanellope replied sharply.

He frowned, his creepy bad guy smile dropping. "Drat. Well, can you at least take me to your code room?"

"Sure, but can I ask you something first?" Vanellope questioned, just before stopping him from walking off in to the castle.

"I suppose."

"Where did you learn so much about code? Only time I had ever seen someone mess with code wasn't-"

"Yes, yes. I know all about Turbo." He paused and saw her flinch. "It is merely a hobby of mine. Besides, I'm pretty sure the wrecker over there wouldn't let anything happen." He pointed behind him and the two girls saw Ralph leaning against the wall. Vanellope wondered how he had went unnoticed until now.

"Ralph! What's up?"

"Hey kid-uh, kids?"

"Hello," Citrusella replied politely.

"You two know each other? Wonderful! Can we get started now?" Robotnik interjected.

Vanellope looked up to Ralph, who caught her eye. Ralph wasn't sure why she was staring, until he noticed that her eyes looked pleading, as if to ask him for permission. He shrugged and motioned for them to follow.

The code room was found in the back part of the castle. Citrusella had never been to this part of the castle, but the others had. Vanellope walked up, entered the code, and turned back to the large doctor.

"Uh, we're going to need a rope or something…"

"Oh, no need." He grinned and, in an instant, he was floating in the air. "Jet boots! Not useful in my game, but I am a scientist _and _an inventor!"

He flew into the room and looked all over, but found no Changelina box. "Where is her box?" he called out.

"It's the blank one, in the corner away from the others!" Vanellope yelled back.

"Blank box?" he asked himself, his voice echoing off into the distance. He looked around a few more times before spotting it. He floated over and ran his fingers over a large, floating box. It seemed ordinary at first, but after a few moments, it blinked once and changed. He blinked and saw the box looked exactly the same as the one in the center of the entire room: Princess Vanellope's box. "Odd… but still blank… Well, let's get started!"

The doctor spent the next hour writing down various notes and doing light experiments with her code. Nothing overly dangerous, but enough to get a feel for how she worked. He was mostly stumped. The others had grown bored while waiting around and were momentarily surprised when he returned.

"Finished!" he announced, wiping his hands to signify a job well done.

Ralph walked up to him. "Well?"

"Uh, well… she's complicated," he admitted, after a few seconds of stammering.

Vanellope and Citrusella groaned out loud. "We know that already!" the president snapped.

"Yes, well, what I mean to say is that it is going to be quite complicated to break it down into simpler terms," he finished, a smug expression on his face.

"Are you calling us stupid?" Ralph asked.

"Exactly! Now then, as you all know, she changes her costumes based on her emotions. Whether or not the chosen costume is random is kind of up in the air, but that doesn't really matter. It's a part of her. Changing moods and emotions for her is a bit more difficult than the rest of us. It's still natural for her to feel emotions like all of us, but what happened just after is almost forced by her. She can choose to not switch costumes, but doing so is far too natural to ignore."

"So, it can hurt her if she ignores it?" Ralph asked, concerned.

"No, but ignoring it is not part of her code. That is her conscious choice. As for her emotional changes on the track, there may be a way to suppress them with a simple add-on that I can code. But that will always be part of her, I'm afraid," he somberly concluded.

"So, racing will always be a nightmare for her?" Vanellope asked.

"Well, with the suppressor, it shouldn't be as horrible as you have described, no. But it's still part of her code, and that is not something I can change."

"Oh." Vanellope looked down and sighed.

Ralph walked up to her and placed his large hand on her shoulder as best as he could. "It'll be fine." He then turned to Robotnik. "Do you need her to make this suppressor add-on?"

"No, she's a fine specimen and looking at her code was enough. It should only take a day."

"Well, thank you." Ralph said.

"No problem! Thank you for the opportunity. I'll see ya later." Robtnik then turned around and left.

"Ralph, what if she starts hating her life?" Vanellope asked.

Ralph sighed and pondered this for a few moments. It was true that their new friend was in for a rough ride, but then he thought of something else. He leaned down to Vanellope and spoke calmly. "Kid, I'm sure her life can't be that bad. I mean, she has all of us, and you. Just help her out when she needs it, and be there for her if she tries to push you away. And she'll be fine."

"Thanks, Ralph… well, barf brain!"

"Yeah, that's me," he said with an exasperated sigh. They shared a quick hug. He looked over to Citrusella and smiled. "C'mon you two, let's get some sleep. You'll have plenty of time to talk to Changelina in the morning."

Ralph felt odd tucking both girls into their beds in separate homes, but it was a welcome gesture from both of them. He soon left their game world and entered his own, deciding that a good night's rest would do him a world of good.

Changelina's morning was no different from the others. She woke up, did a morning stretch and frowned when she realized it was still a racing day. Vanellope was waiting at her door like the previous nights. Only, instead of a sad, sympathetic smile, she wore a genuine one.

"Uh, good morning, Vanellope."

"Morning! So, I wanted to surprise you with something else cause I know you're feeling down about racing..." Vanellope paused, seeing her wince and switch costumes to the princess Vanellope. "You kind of look like you need something to hope for."

"What do you mean?"

"We've been trying to fix your emotion issue on the track, and we found a way. Dr. Robotnik from another game is working on an add-on for your code. It suppresses emotions on the track."

"So I won't feel anything?!" she asked hopefully.

Vanellope frowned. "You still will, but it won't be as bad…"

"Oh." Changelina looked dejected.

"I'm sorry. I tried my best to help."

"No, it's okay, Vanellope. It helps. At least, I hope it does…"

"Alright. Just don't be afraid to ask if you have any problems, 'kay?"

Changelina smiled slightly and they both left for the track. Through the rest of the day, Changelina continued to ponder what the suppressor would feel like. Would it hurt to install? Would racing still be a nightmarish work schedule? She hoped the only answer to both of these questions was _no. _


	7. Changelina Art

Incase anyone was wondering what Changelina looks like:

1. Go to deviantArt

2. Find the user "Jenny-Jen"

3. Click on Gallery - Then Fanart - Then Wreck-It Ralph

4. Click on image "WiR: Changelina"

I have tried to submit links to this story or images but Fanfiction just hates those two things I guess. If I'm doing something stupid let me know cause I have no idea how to get images to work on this site. This story is still on the works and is a crossover in more ways than one. Just hang in there readers!


	8. Chapter Six Accepting Fate

**Chapter Six: Accepting Fate**

"Are you sure you're ready?" Vanellope asked her friend while standing in front of the game portal to Sonic's world.

"I guess. If it helps, then why not?" Changelina countered.

"Right." Vanellope smiled and the two walked onto the tram. The president was amazed that her friend was able to stay awake after another day of racing. She did look exhausted but hopefully this was a step in the right direction.

Inside, they found Robotnik holding a gun of some kind with a rather large needle on the end. He had been waiting for them. The girls both gulped loudly.

"Now then, are you ready?" Robotnik held up the needle but did not point it at the girl until she was good and ready.

Changelina turned to Vanellope, who gave an encouraging nod and a smile. Changelina shrugged and nodded herself.

"Wonderful!" Without much warning, he lunged forward and the needle was shoved into Changelina's right arm. The needle made a whooshing noise and they saw code inject into her. He then removed it and smirked.

"That… didn't hurt."

"Of course not. But what would be the fun in telling you it wouldn't?" He laughed maniacally and put the needle away.

Changelina scowled and looked down at her arm. She rubbed it a few times and sighed. It was done.

"Do you feel any different?" Vanellope asked.

"No, should I?" Changelina glanced over at Robotnik.

"On the track, yes, but anytime else it shouldn't change a thing."

The two shrugged, thanked him and left the game. It was morning and the arcade would start soon, it was time to put the code alteration to the test.

Walking to the starting line from Game Central Station felt like nothing. Changelina's only thought was _will it work_? Over and over, the same thought bounced around. A few moments later, she was nervously gripping her steering wheel. A quarter had just been inserted. As luck would have it, or some other feeling in her case, she was chosen as the first racer of the morning.

She didn't feel different at first; she was used to the beginning of a race. The start of each race she felt no emotions other than the thrill of the engine roaring to life. This time, there was no thrill or excitement, just curiosity. She almost felt out of her own body while she waited for the child player to switch costumes on her. It happened almost immediately. She switched to Calhoun. She felt anger swelling within her, and then she felt nothing. The feeling had still been there, but it stopped almost immediately.

_This isn't so bad, it could definitely be worse, _she thought.

That's how her day played out. Emotions still came, but were dealt with very swiftly. She was thankful for having such good friends to watch her back. She was thankful for just being alive and given the chance to race. She was thankful for a lot of things, but not her changing ability. If it wasn't for that, then the entire mess would not exist in the first place. She would feel free. But that was part of her code, part of who she was as a game character.

_I just have to accept it, it is me…_

She should have been proud of being unique and overall different, yet the same from everyone else. She wasn't. Changelina wanted her emotions to be under her control and not some code that could never be deleted. She sighed as her car turned at a bank, her mind finally in the race instead of elsewhere. Luckily, the person who was racing her had decided that her current costume, Vanellope, was enough and did not change her once throughout the rest of the race.

_Vanellope… she's such a good friend…_

It felt like she was home. She could race forever at that very moment. It felt like when she first started racing, when she had a friend on her side to see her through with anything. She was thankful for Vanellope most of all. No amount of forced emotions could make her feel weird or out of place when the president of the game was nearby. Changelina grinned and, had she been in control of her car, she would have sped up and won.

She got second place with the player in charge of her. The rest of the day was still exhausting, but certainly not as bad as before. She was panting by the time the arcade closed for the night, but a few deep breaths made her feel right as rain. She looked up and smiled softly as Vanellope walked up to her.

"Well?" Vanellope asked in a hopeful tone.

Changelina held up her smile. Inside, she still felt turmoil, but she had no reason to trouble her friend any more than she had. _She's helped enough… _She shook her thoughts away and began to speak. "It worked! I feel much better."

"Great! Want to hang at Tappers then?"

"Yeah…" Changelina exhaled and smiled. She still felt like something was wrong, but Vanellope being there made anything at all seem like a distant memory. As long as she had friends, she could get through anything.

"Well, are you sure you can handle the payments? I'm asking for a fair amount for each machine…" Mr. Litwak said into the phone. "These machines may be old, but they are stable and quite profitable still." The owner of the arcade nodded. "Are you sure I can't talk you into buying Sugar Rush too? ...Well, there probably are other buyers, but the entire place needs to be gutted. I guess it doesn't really matter where they all go to in the long run, but a clean sell would be nice. No… I understand, I guess I should be glad that you're even willing to buy even half these machines. Yeah, alright. Bye."

He hung up his phone and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I'm gonna miss this place…" He stood up and reentered the arcade. He wasn't even paying attention to the screens; he was simply admiring the art on the side of each arcade cabinet. "Yeah," he said, his voice sounding louder than before. "I'm certainly gonna miss this place, but I guess all good things must come to an end one day." He breathed in and walked over to the front doors. The man took one last look at this arcade.

"It's just time to move on. Farewell, my arcade." The door shut closed, the man not bothering to even turn off the electricity out of habit.

One of the machines closest to Litwak's door, Mario Bros., had heard it all. The plumbers ran off in a hurry to warn the others of impending doom.

Calhoun was sitting across from Ralph and the three girls. Vanellope, Changelina and Citrusella were giggling together at a few jokes they just cracked at the Sergeant's expense. The woman rolled her eyes and turned to meet her husband's gaze, who was sitting at the other end of the bar with Ralph. Nothing could ruin these types of moments, Calhoun knew. Not even a Cybug infestation.

"Calhoun!" Mario, panting and drenched in sweat, ran up to her table and slammed his hands down, causing the others to flinch.

"What's the meaning of this?!" Calhoun barked.

"Itsa Litwak, he's selling our machines!" he screamed.

_Almost_ anything couldn't ruin that moment.

The bar fell silent. No one looked at any specific thing, pupils darting left and right. Some looked to Mario to see if it was some sick joke, but he wasn't laughing. Slowly, for each and every game character, the realization and understanding set in.

Characters started screaming and panicking all around. The bar had been full that night, packed to the brim. Some of the characters practically looked like they were running around in circles, while others, the bigger ones from more violent games, started looking stressed out and ready to try something desperate. The three girls cowered at their table, unable to do anything, glitch or otherwise. Calhoun, after waiting one minute, snapped.

"ENOUGH!" Calhoun screeched. She fired her gun into the center of the bar. Everyone stopped moving, any crying had ceased. Felix had once described to Ralph that his wife's battle cry could be heard two games over.

Calhoun commanded, "Everyone listen to me, and listen _good_! I've prepared for this! I can't say I was expecting it to happen so soon, but according to Mario, it has. Get to your games and gather every character that lives there. Meet back at Game Central Station and await further orders. No one is going to die or get separated if I can help it!"

They all nodded and left the bar, slowly at first. Eventually, they broke into a full sprint, leaving behind three racers who were petrified at the notion of leaving their own game.

Getting unplugged was uncertain; it might as well mean death. You would wake up when you were plugged back in, but what happened after that was unknown. A different arcade, different friends and family and possibly...different memories.

"President, snap out of it!" Vanellope looked up. The girl's eyes widened in horror. "Get to your game, gather the racers and characters and meet back in Game Central Station, now!" Calhoun barked. The three little girls could not leave fast enough.

Felix and Ralph looked at her, the former stepping forward. "Honey, how can we be certain that he's going to do it?"

Calhoun looked into his eyes and sighed. "I never mentioned this because it wasn't really relevant until now, but since my game has the largest screen, I get the biggest view of the arcade. I've seen things and heard things that Mr. Litwak mutters from day to day. This doesn't surprise me. He's through with this place, so we must move on."

Ralph was speechless, as was Felix.

"Felix, get the Nicelanders. Ralph, your job is to make sure that no one gets left behind in this panic. Check every game and, if need be, use your strength to help others. Got it?" she ordered both. They offered her a comical salute and ran out.

Changelina had rarely seen her best friend like this, like a panicked little girl. Vanellope barked orders at the non-racers to stick together and meet at the gate just outside. She ran all over the kingdom with Changelina in tow. It took them all of two hours to gather all of the racers.

"Is this really happening?!" a few screamed. The president sighed and nodded.

"Is everyone here?!" Vanellope screamed back. She knew they had plenty of time and the arcade was not going to be "ended" tonight, but she was still panicking on the inside. The president did not wait for a reply and started doing a head count.

She counted sixteen racers and Sour Bill, who had confirmed with her that the candied children had left the arcade. "Good! Now, listen, everyone! I..."

Vanellope hadn't realized it, but she was breathing in and out at an alarming rate. "This has never happened before, but we all knew that someday it would. Mr. Litwak is selling our machines and splitting all of them up. This means getting unplugged and most likely a hardware reset."

The air was tense. All the racers froze in fear at the mention of this.

Vanellope continued, "It won't mean any different if we abandon our machines or not to the users. Calhoun, my friend, has a plan for all of us to escape. It's not perfect, but it's better than losing all of our memories or, worse...dying."

Changelina was in a different state of shock. She had barely just been "born" and now she would have to abandon what she knew. She hadn't even fully explored all the games. She had just overcome her emotions problem, or as close as she was going to get, and now it didn't matter. She wished it wasn't happening, but a firm grip of her friend's hand on her arm proved that it was.

She was hauled off in a hurry as the racers all ran for the exit of the game, not bothering to look back. The tram ride sped by pure silence. If the president had nothing to say, then why would any of them as a collective whole? The funny thing was that, of all of them, it affected Changelina the least, considering she had only been part of their game for around a week.

When the tram pulled back in, Changelina was shocked to see everyone inside Game Central losing their minds. An angry Calhoun was trying to maintain order. Game characters were screaming for attention, or hitting themselves or crying. No one would simply sit still and listen to Calhoun's plan.

Changelina's fist had started twitch in annoyance. She desperately wanted to hear Calhoun speak, to at least feel some form of comfort from the chaotic nature of the Game Central Station's crowd. Vanellope gasped when her friend started to glow, her code glitching a few times before she screamed.

Changelina felt hatred for losing what was supposed to be hers. She felt fury for the unfairness of her life. She felt sorrow for all the characters and her friends for having to abandon their homes. She had enough of her emotions losing control or taking over or even making her feel worse. Instead of trying to manage them this time, she let loose.

A second later, the entire crowd, which was everyone plugged into Game Central Station, was gawking at the scene before them. Changelina had switched costumes to Ralph and let go of her vented feelings onto the digitized floor, which was completely destroyed. Her massive fist was wedged into said floor while she was panting and wheezing, her anger slowly evaporating into fear.

Calhoun saw her fear and decided to take command. "Alright, maggots! Listen up!" she roared, causing most of them to flinch and finally pay attention.

Changelina glitched back into herself and simply looked to Vanellope, who gave her a sad smile. They listened.

"In about an hour, we will all be leaving through that port." Calhoun pointed to a wall which had always gone unnoticed by most. It was the port which lead directly to the wall. "Anybody is welcome to stay of course, but to the users, it won't make a difference. A reset is a reset, which means your game avatars will be there waiting for them whether we leave or not! Our goal is to find a new home, but of course it's not gonna be handed to us on a silver platter or through a way point. We will be looking for a plug that is accepting as much power as our arcade or even more. That is our best bet. Be ready in that time, or we leave without you." She didn't wait for any questions, because frankly she had no real answers. She simply walked back to Vanellope's group.

"Got that kingdom of yours ready?"

"Yes," she squeaked. Vanellope hated feeling nervous-to her, it was a sign of weakness.

"Good. Be thankful that we don't need food to survive, or we'd be screwed. I'll see you all at that port in one hour." Calhoun then walked away.

Changelina wasn't sure how she felt about her blunt nature this time, but let it slide. She literally slumped down onto the floor next to Vanellope and sighed.

Vanellope smirked and smacked her hand into Changelina's, forcing her up. "We have to stick together girl. No _lagging behind_ and no _lollygagging_!" she exclaimed playfully, mimicking the two adults in her life that had changed it for the better.

"Right…" Changelina forced a smile. Vanellope seemed to have bought it for once. She felt good for being able to control her emotions like that, but bad for lying. She wasn't okay and she knew it, but she figured that mopping about it would only make it worse.

The remaining hour was spent in silence. Well, silence for the racers and candy kingdom, that is. The rest of the arcade was still loud and obnoxious, but the girls did not feel okay to speak. They were still children, even if it was just programming and even if they were technically older than fifteen (Changelina being the one exception). To a game character, programming was everything. Thus, they were the youngest group at the arcade. Eventually, Ralph, Calhoun and Felix walked up to join the group.

"Alright, Ralph informs me that were not missing anyone," Calhoun confirmed. A single nervous nod from the president was all she got in return. She said, "Well, we're all going in. Your group is last. Just stick with Ralph. I mean it. Do _not_ leave his side! Got it?"

Vanellope nodded again, looking up at Ralph, who had the same nervous expression on his face. "Hey kid?" he asked.

Vanellope looked back up. "Yeah?"

"It's going to be fine. We'll figure something out. We got Robotnik with us, after all. I'm sure he can think of something."

"Yeah…" Vanellope muttered. Slowly, time started to speed up as more and more game characters started to disappear into the void of the wall. Until it was just Changelina, Vanellope, her racers, Ralph, and Robotnik left. The doctor had his arms crossed, looking stoic. Then, he spoke.

"To the great void, huh? I'll miss my lab…" he muttered, and soon joined the wall.

"C'mon kids, it's going to be fine," Ralph declared confidently.

Soon Ralph and the racers entered. Changelina and Vanellope were trailing behind. The last thing Changelina saw before the void took them in was a smiling Vanellope looking towards her.

**Author's Notes:** So phew, this took a while. Sorry for the delay readers. After this chapter hings are going to get a tad weird. And it will start to become a crossover. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to switch it to crossover this late in the story though but we shall see. Regardless of what Fanfiction let's me do, this is and has always been one.


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